Mental Health Justice Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1377, I call up the bill (H.R. 8542) to amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants to States, Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, Urban Indian organizations, and political subdivisions thereof to hire, employ, train, and dispatch mental health professionals to respond in lieu of law enforcement officers in emergencies involving one or more persons with a mental illness or an intellectual or developmental disability, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

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Mr. PALLONE. 8542, the Mental Health Justice Act of 2022.

I rise today in support of H.R. 8542, the Mental Health Justice Act of 2022, sponsored by Congresswoman Katie Porter of California.

As my colleagues well know, the Nation is facing a mental health crisis. One in five adults experience a mental health illness in their life, and 1 in 20 experience a serious mental illness.

The Mental Health Justice Act creates a grant program for local governments to hire, train, and dispatch mental health professionals when 911 is called because someone is experiencing a mental health crisis.

Mr. Speaker, we must ensure people have access to the support they need, especially in moments of crisis when emergency responders are called.

This legislation would help support connecting those experiencing a mental health crisis with the appropriate responders, resources, and care. The appropriate responder here is crucial. In an effort to balance the needs of individuals and communities, this bill still maintains States' and public entities' hiring and recruiting authority for law enforcement officers and in no way limits their ability to intervene in dangerous circumstances.

It is through such coordination and collaboration with law enforcement and the community that we make our communities safer.

By ensuring that a mental health professional is the responder in situations where a person is experiencing a mental health or disability-related crisis, this bill will help keep some of the most vulnerable members of our community safe.

This is a good bill that will help strengthen the communities we serve, and I urge all my colleagues to support H.R. 8542 today.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I only have one speaker, so I will continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. PALLONE. Porter), the sponsor of this legislation, someone who has worked so hard in her time here on mental health and behavioral health issues.

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I commend the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Porter) for constantly coming up with innovative approaches to the mental health and the opioid crises. I see this over and over again on her part.

Look, the bottom line is local governments need support for these types of specialized mental health response units that she has put together as part of this bill with grant funding. This isn't going to happen unless the Federal Government provides this kind of funding and authorization for these programs. I know locally in New Jersey, it will not happen unless we do something and provide these types of grants.

It does disturb me that the Republicans keep trying to politicize this because I know that on our committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee--and most of the speakers on the other side are on our committee--we have worked hard to come together in a bipartisan way to try to come up with innovative approaches to the behavioral health crisis.

We did a bill that passed the House 404-20 just a few months ago that provides help for mental health and well-being that has ways of trying to deal with this crisis. I think that Katie Porter should be commended for coming up with another creative and innovative approach for trying to deal with this.

Every day, we know that the crisis is there, and we have to, at a Federal level, respond to it. This bill will go very far, in my opinion, toward responding to that crisis.

Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone to support this bill on both sides of the aisle, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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