Mental Health Matters Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Chair, I thank the ranking member for the opportunity to talk about this important legislation.

Millions of Americans experience mental health issues and struggle to find adequate care. We all agree on that in this Chamber. This is especially true among our Nation's youth due in large part to the prolonged school closures championed by the Democrats.

Republicans have continually stressed the mental health toll students have shouldered because of these school closures. But closures were led by Democrats in Democrat-run States that were allies with the teachers unions.

That is why I have also introduced H.R. 787, the Expanding Student Access to Mental Health Services Act, which would authorize State and local educational agencies to use student support and academic enrichment grants to improve mental health services available to students by allowing funds to be used for identifying and disseminating best practices for mental health first aid, emergency planning, coordination of services, and telehealth services.

I would have loved to have introduced this bill as an amendment to H.R. 7780, but, unfortunately, the Democrats did not allow any amendments to this legislation on the floor today. Rather than working in a bipartisan manner to reform our current mental health care systems, Democrats are pushing a bill that will punish employers for offering mental health benefits to their employees and incite brash litigation against benefit plan sponsors.

Let me repeat: Democrats are pushing a bill that will punish employers for offering mental health benefits to their employees and incite brash litigation against benefit plan sponsors.

To add insult to injury, H.R. 7780 recklessly spends 275 million taxpayer dollars under the guise of mental health parity enforcement, but the Department of Labor hasn't even clarified what mental health parity means.

So, we are going to pass it and then figure out what it means. We have heard that before.

How can it be enforced if no one understands what it is? How can we authorize this funding without vetting how it will be spent?

Additionally, H.R. 7780 prohibits arbitration clauses, class action waivers, and discretionary clauses from employee benefit plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, known as ERISA. In short, this bill will only benefit trial lawyers and will lead to a reduction in mental health benefits as employers will have to divert money to pay attorney's fees.

This is precisely why I tried to submit an amendment to the bill on the floor today, almost the same amendment I offered during its markup in the Education and Labor Committee, which the Democrats failed to pass.

My proposed amendment would have made the Department of Labor's ability to bring civil action against ERISA plans offering mental health benefits conditional on the Department issuing additional guidance on these vague mental health parity requirements. It would also strike the $275 million in funding that has been allocated to the Department of Labor. But, again, Democrats blocked our ability to offer amendments.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Democrats exempt unions from some of the most damaging provisions of the bill.

It is imperative that we address the mental health crisis that is plaguing our society, but we should do that by ensuring access to reliable, high-quality, and affordable mental health services.

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Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Chair, I emphasize it is imperative that we address the mental health crisis that is plaguing our society. We all agree here in the House on that. But we should do that by ensuring access to reliable, high-quality, and affordable mental health services, not by punishing employers with undue litigation for offering these benefits to our workers.

I remain committed to finding solutions to combat the mental health problem in this country, especially for our youth. It is my hope that, in the future, as my chairman said, House Democrats will work in a bipartisan manner to address this crisis, rather than bringing damaging legislation such as H.R. 7780 to the floor.

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