Calling on Need for Comprehensive Mental Health Legislation

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise this evening to call my colleagues' attention to the dire need for Congress to continue building upon recent progress to unlock the mysteries of the human brain and serious mental illness. Along with other legislation we are working on in the field of health, we have to create and pass robust mental health legislation.

Alongside other members of our Congressional Mental Health Caucus and the Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Task Force, we are pulling together legislation to establish a comprehensive Mental Health Crisis Response Act.

I invite all of our colleagues to please work with our bipartisan working group. America has waited too long. The fundamentals of our social economy depend on the good health of our citizenry, and their ability to access quality and affordable behavioral health services has for too long been ignored.

Countless constituents face insurance barriers when accessing mental health services, and we must address the negative social and physical determinants of health that cause trauma and tragic illnesses.

It is time for us to take meaningful action. Again, I invite my colleagues to join us in preparing this important legislation.

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