On the recordJune 22, 2022
I am so happy about this bipartisan legislation and really excited about the changes that are going to be made, because for all 24 years that I have been in Congress, I have not had a townhall meeting or a meeting with my constituents where the issue of access and affordability of mental health services has not come up. Right now, our country is facing a mental health crisis like we have not seen before. We are seeing that families are losing loved ones to COVID, to suicide, and to overdoses. This bill will provide vital services in substance abuse and mental health, four things mainly. We will see a strengthening of parity. We voted for parity a long time ago, and now we are going to make sure that mental health and physical health are on the same page. We are going to have 30 programs that are going to strengthen and reauthorize mental health services. We are going to have more education for doctors. We are going to have doctors be able to have more patients for certain mental assistance treatment. This is a great bill. We should all be proud to vote for it.
