Political Quotes

“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.…”