AMNA NAWAZ: One day after the Trump administration cut off billions in funding for mental health and addiction programs across the country, the White House is now reversing course, choosing to restore some $2 billion in federal grant money.

The decision, which impacted thousands of organizations and grant recipients, was reversed after bipartisan political pushback.

Brian Mann broke this story for NPR.

He joins me here now in studio.

Welcome.

Thanks for being here.

BRIAN MANN, National Addiction Correspondent, National Public Radio: Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: OK, before we get into the whole back-and-forth on funding, just tell us about the programs that would have been impacted.

Where are they?

Who do they serve?

What do they do?

BRIAN MANN: Yes, so first of all, we're talking nationwide, over 2,000 programs.

And I think one of the things that's important to understand is that, for mental health and addiction, there's kind of like a quilt of programs.

A lot of it is local governments.

It's nonprofits.

And these are life-or-death programs.

These are programs that are literally keeping people from overdosing.

They're checking in on people with severe mental illness.

They're helping people transition to safer environments if they're living on the streets.

And a lot of the public health people I have been speaking to talk about their clients being extraordinarily vulnerable.

So if these programs go away, people can land hard.

People are talking literally about fearing that their clients would die if some of these services vanished.

AMNA NAWAZ: So they get notification late on Tuesday, as you reported... BRIAN MANN: Yes, out of the blue.

AMNA NAWAZ: ... that the funding was being cut.

This was funding approved by Congress, we should note.

BRIAN MANN: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Were they told why?

Was there any heads-up to that?

BRIAN MANN: Basically, there was no heads-up.

This was a bolt out of the blue.

Suddenly, this letter arrives in inboxes all over the country.

And what it says -- this is from SAMHSA, part of the Health and Human Services Department.

It said: "Your program no longer aligns with the Trump administration's agenda."

That's pretty much it.

And a lot of these programs had been scrambling to try to adapt to the Trump administration's guidelines.

People were really trying to play ball with the administration and they still got these letters.

You're out.

The money stops now.

This was not, we're giving you six months.

AMNA NAWAZ: It was immediate.

BRIAN MANN: It was immediate.

And that meant people were literally talking about closing their doors within the week.

AMNA NAWAZ: And within 48 hours, they get notification, never mind?

How did that happen?

BRIAN MANN: Yes, that's right.

What happens is that this set off a firestorm.

And I think it's important to say this was a bipartisan firestorm.

There were Republicans who were working in the administration.

There were Democrats working in the administration.

Grassroots organizations all over the country were reaching out to the White House, to members of Congress, saying, this is going to get people killed.

And so, quickly, my sources tell me that inside HHS, inside the White House, there were high-level meetings, people saying, how did we get here?

What do we do?

And so, late last night, a source from the administration called me and told me anonymously, we're reversing this, we're going to fund these grants, the money will flow.

AMNA NAWAZ: So it sounds like it was the bipartisan political pushback, hearing from the organizations about the impact that helped to reverse the decision.

But someone had to be making those decisions in the first place, right?

What have you been able to learn about who was behind that?

BRIAN MANN: Yes, this is really troubling to a lot of the public health professionals that I have been talking to.

So, within HHS, there are people who know about these programs and they know about the lifesaving work that they do.

But my sources tell me that this decision to cut off the grant funding came from outside that professional staff, that they were not consulted.

So there was politics involved here, There were people who are not expert in mental health or addiction who made this call.

We haven't been able to identify who that was.

We don't know exactly where the axe fell from.

And, similarly, we can't even lock down who reversed this decision.

And one of the things that's frightening to these organizations out there is that leaves them with a lot of uncertainty.

If they don't know who's making the shots here, calling the shots, they don't know what's going to happen next week or the week after that.

It's important to say that, last year, the Trump administration did something very similar.

They froze a lot of grants, slow-walked them.

This is the kind of uncertainty that makes it hard.

I mentioned this kind of quilt of programs.

It's already very, very fragile.

Keeping it together with this kind of day-to-day uncertainty is really tough.

AMNA NAWAZ: These are agencies and systems that you regularly deeply report on.

BRIAN MANN: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: What does all of this reveal to you about how things are working in these agencies that have, as you mentioned, life-and-death issues in their hands?

BRIAN MANN: I think it's dangerously fragile.

The people I talk to, they're already exhausted.

They're already working with people who are severely ill, people who are using fentanyl or methamphetamines, who have severe mental illnesses.

This is tough work.

And when suddenly you hear overnight that you may lose your job, that you may not be able to pay your rent, that adds to this uncertainty.

And so I think we are really looking at a very fragile American public health system that is hitting moments like this, and people are saying, can we hold it together?

And one of the things that I'm hearing is that people are looking to the Trump administration for real leadership.

What is the plan going forward?

If we don't match your agenda, what is the agenda?

How can we get together on that page?

And, right now, that communication just isn't happening.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, on the front lines for these organizations, the funding seems to still be there for now.

BRIAN MANN: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: But is there still an impact?

Is it like it never happened?

BRIAN MANN: Oh, no.

This has sent shockwaves through the system.

People are going to be much more cautious about hiring, starting new programs, that people are going to take fewer risks in terms of innovating and trying to help more people.

People are still reeling.

I mean, this was an emotional -- this was -- people have talked about this as a day of panic for the entire American public health system.

And so I think, from top to bottom, people are going to be figuring out where we go from here, who do we trust, who do we communicate with.

And for a system that is based on science, that's based on health care, this felt like a moment when it could all fall apart.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's incredible reporting.

We will continue to follow you as you follow this story.

Brian Mann of NPR, thank you for being here.

BRIAN MANN: Thanks for having me.