Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2016

Floor Speech

I rise in support of H.R. 2646, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act.

Today's mental health system can hardly be described as a system at all. While some States are undertaking promising improvements, the system is fragmented, overwhelmed, and underresourced. Far too many people with mental illnesses can't get the treatment they need to live long, healthy, and productive lives, so I am pleased that this bill takes an important step toward improving mental health care in this country.

The bill under consideration today, Mr. Speaker, is a significant improvement over the original version introduced a year ago. It is no secret that many of us had substantial concerns with some of the provisions in the original text of the bill, and I am sure that my fellow Members of the Committee on Energy and Commerce remember the extensive debate we had on this bill during our subcommittee markup last November.

Since that time, we have found common ground. We removed many provisions that would have done more harm than good, in my opinion, and replaced them with policies that strengthen the bill. I am proud that H.R. 2646 now includes several policies championed by Democrats.

The bill requires that States provide the full range of early and periodic screening, diagnostic, and treatment--EPSDT--services to children in the Medicaid program who receive inpatient psychiatric care at so-called institutions of mental disease. It creates a new assertive community treatment grant program and a peer professional workforce grant program. The legislation also creates new grant programs to address adult suicide, expands access to community crisis response services, and creates and disseminates model HIPAA training programs.

A great deal of work went into crafting this agreement, and I want to thank my Republican colleagues for continuing to meet with us throughout this process so that we could bring a bipartisan product to the floor.

That said, the bill before us today is not transformative reform nor is it a panacea to the many problems now facing our mental health system. I encourage my colleagues to see this legislation as a necessary step rather than a solution, and I want to be very clear on this point. If we are truly serious about fixing our broken mental health system, we have to expand access and make sustained investment, and that means we must work to encourage all States to expand Medicaid and provide more Federal resources to support the growth of community- based prevention, treatment, and recovery services.

This legislation is not comprehensive. It by no means contains enough funding to make the mental health system whole. I hope that, in the near future, we can work together again on additional legislation to increase treatment options and further strengthen mental health parity enforcement.

I once again want to thank my colleagues who stood with me throughout this long process, fiercely voicing their concerns and advocating for major improvements to the bill. I want to thank Chairman Upton for his leadership, and the bill's sponsors, Representatives Tim Murphy and Eddie Bernice Johnson, for championing this issue for so many years.

I urge my colleagues to support this important bipartisan bill, and I look forward to the Senate's action on this issue.

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Mr. PALLONE.

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Mr. PALLONE. Matsui).

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Mr. PALLONE. Eddie Bernice Johnson), the Democratic sponsor of the bill.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

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Mr. PALLONE. Kaptur).
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, could I inquire again about the time remaining on each side, and ask whether Mr. Murphy, how many additional speakers he has?

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Mr. PALLONE. Does the gentleman have a number of additional speakers?

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Mr. PALLONE. DeGette), who is the ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
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Mr. PALLONE. I continue to reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I will continue to reserve the balance of my time until we get to closing remarks.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is an important and positive step towards expanding and improving mental health care services in this country, but it is only a first step. If we are serious about strengthening our national mental health care system, we must expand access and dedicate more resources.

Comprehensive legislation should include dedicating robust resources to ensure access to community-based prevention, treatment, and recovery services in every community across the country. It must provide additional tools to strengthen mental health parity enforcement.

Democrats will stay focused on continuing to expand and improve the continuum care for mental health care services.

That said, I do want my colleagues, and I urge my colleagues, to support this bipartisan legislation, and let us also work together to get the Senate to pass their bipartisan bill, and they need to go to conference or somehow get a bill that would pass both Houses and get to the President. I do pledge to my colleagues on the Republican side that we need to do that between now and the end of year.

I wanted to take a moment to thank the Democratic committee staff who worked so hard on this bill--most of them are on the floor--Tiffany Guarascio, Waverly Gordon to my right, Rachel Pryor, Arielle Woronoff, Una Lee, and, finally, our fellow, Kyle Fischer.

Again, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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