Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act of 2022

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 7666 the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well- Being Act is a significant bill that will help support our mental health workforce, increase access to pediatric mental health treatment, and help make schools safer.

This bill will bolster substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery resources. The Committee on Energy and Commerce has worked on this for many months, held hearings, and reported it out by a voice vote in May.

Recognizing children's mental health has been negatively impacted by school closures, ineffective lockdowns, and increased violence. This bill provides specific resources to help communities respond to the children's mental health crisis. This legislation also supports community mental health services for children with serious emotional disturbances through crisis-care service and early intervention activities.

The need to strengthen resources for children's mental health has been further heightened after the horrific school violence we have seen in Uvalde.

This bill also works to reauthorize the Garrett Lee Smith Suicide Prevention Program, provide funding for a suicide prevention lifeline, and update a major block grant that States use to provide support to those with serious mental illness.

In addition to supporting those with mental illness, the legislation helps those with substance use disorders. Kentucky has seen a drastic rise in overdoses throughout the pandemic and, nationally, the CDC estimates that drug overdoses exceeded 107,000 between November 2020 and November 2021.

Many of these drug overdoses have been caused by synthetic opioids, like illicit fentanyl poisoning, which were involved in about 70 percent of all Kentucky overdoses in 2021.

Ultimately, fighting the drug overdose epidemic will require a two- pronged approach: Equipping our law enforcement with the tools they need to keep these deadly poisons off our streets and providing recovery and treatment resources.

Through the passage of this bill, we are advancing the second part of this approach by increasing access to critical treatment and recovery resources for people from all walks of life and every stage of life. This includes resources for moms and pregnant women by supporting care for maternal health and substance use disorders, which are among the leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum women.

In addition, this legislation also has a provision led by Representative Bucshon, alongside Representatives Miller-Meeks, Axne, and Pappas, to remove unnecessary regulatory barriers to help those with opioid use disorder seek the care that they need as quickly as possible.

The Timely Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder Act removes a Federal requirement of having to live with opioid disorder for more than 1 year to be admitted for in-person treatment. I am proud that my bill, the Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant Act of 2022, which I have worked together with my colleagues, Messrs. Tonko, McKinley, and Ms. Wild, is also included in this bill.

The legislation would deliver more coordinated substance use disorder care as well as explicitly reauthorizing funding for recovery support services, which include workforce training and others.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote for this bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source