Money approved by Congress last year to fight the opioid epidemic is gradually reaching places where it can do some good, with some setbacks along the way.

Republicans and Democrats shared impatience Wednesday as they questioned top administration officials at a hearing on the 21st Century Cures Act and other federal spending to address the nation’s all-time worst drug addiction crisis.

The Cures dollars are helping some people get medicine to treat their addiction for the first time. At Fellowship House in Birmingham, Alabama, John Montesano, is getting help and recently marked six months without a relapse. He’s a former long-haul truck driver who had a 20-year pill addiction.

In others places, bureaucratic hurdles prevent innovation, driving home the point that gaining ground on the epidemic will be difficult.