Mental health overhaul bill clears House panel

In an 18-12 vote that mostly followed party lines, the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health forwarded the controversial bill to the full committee — its last stop on the way to the House floor. Democrats had introduced 37 last-minute amendments during a marathon meeting last Wednesday.

“We are getting a dump of amendments to prevent this bill from moving forward,” one Republican congressional aide.

But Democrats said the amendment process gave them a voice in a debate they felt shut out of.

“It is clear that our concerns were not being heard,” said the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey.

Nearly all the Democratic amendments failed on party-line votes, but Murphy pledged to consider them before the full committee takes up the bill.

Dubbed the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, the legislation has been in the works since just after the 2012 school shooting that killed 26 in Newtown, Conn., and is seen as the Republican alternative to gun-control proposals.

“These last few months we could call the Bloody Summer of 2015” because of a string of mass shootings, Murphy said. “I know people want to find solutions to this,” he said. “The pain is too great, the body count is always climbing and we cannot [accept] the status quo.” — (AP)

He said his bill would save lives being lost to suicide and homicide at the hands of mentally ill people. Democrats on the subcommittee contested that argument.

“This bill would reduce privacy protections for people with mental illness. It would have a chilling effect by deterring individuals from seeking treatment they desperately need,” said Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas).

At hearings last year some opponents complained that the provision would take away patients’ rights to choose their own treatment. Others say the legislation falls short of providing resources to improve access to and quality of mental healthcare.

“This bill makes it easier to involuntarily commit the mentally ill into a system unequipped to provide them with the treatment that they need,” said Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass).

Over the last few years, Murphy has held hearings and meetings on the bill across the country with hundreds of stakeholders, but Democrats complained loudly that he has held substantive meetings with them.

“It’s not up to one individual to decide ‘I’m going to dictate the outcome of what’s going to happen legislatively,’” said Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.). “That is not a democracy; it’s an atrocity.”

Murphy countered that he has met with Democrats, and 45 of them signed on as co-sponsors along with 117 Republicans. Further, he has incorporated some of their input, including a proposal by Rep. Doris Matsui of California to provide training for doctors and patients about what can be shared with caregivers.

The Murphy bill addresses a shortage of inpatient beds for psychiatric patients, provides for faster intervention for people with schizophrenia, creates a grant program for school services for children with emotional disturbances, reauthorizes a suicide-prevention program and improves coordination between government agencies that serve the mentally ill.

Pallone said it was clear that Murphy had enough votes to push his bill through the GOP-controlled House. But he doubted the lawmaker had the necessary support in the Senate and White House for it to become law.

“This is an exercise in futility. We want to work together,” Pallone said.

The Senate is considering its own version of the bill. If both pass their respective chambers a conference committee will be tasked with reconciling them. — (AP)