Heidi Alexander: “tomorrow the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a piece of legislation that many in this body on both sides of…”

“tomorrow the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a piece of legislation that many in this body on both sides of the aisle have worked on and that the majority leader of the Senate has described as the single most important piece of legislation that will pass this year. We call it the 21st Century Cures Act, and it includes three mental health reform acts--the most significant reforms in mental health programs in 10 years. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks the more than 200 organizations from all across the country supporting the 21st Century Cures legislation. Why would the majority leader say it is the most important legislation the Senate might act on--because we do a lot of important stuff around here, whether it is Defense authorization, whether it is cyber security, whether it is the bill to fix No Child Left Behind that we passed in a bipartisan way last December. I think it is because this legislation will affect virtually every American family because we are entering the most exciting period of medical research in our country. That is the first part of it. The second part, which has to do with mental health, affects so many families. We know that about one out of every five adult Americans suffers from some form of mental illness.…”