Healthcare (Mental Health)

HR 1448, the PEER Mental Health Act of 2025, provides federal grants to schools for mental health training. It requires training school staff, students, parents, and caregivers to recognize mental health symptoms in youth, refer students to services, and apply basic response techniques during immediate distress. The bill mandates that at least 25% of annual funding ($24.96 million per year for 2026-2030) supports rural schools, with streamlined application processes and technical assistance for grantees. The program directly affects public schools, their personnel, and students by expanding access to mental health awareness and community resource education.

The Veterans Bill of Rights Act (HR 6017) requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide every veteran with a written "Bill of Rights" detailing 11 specific entitlements, including fair treatment, access to healthcare (with mental health services and Community Care options), privacy protections, and a 120-day target for resolving appeals. The VA must distribute this document in print and online, establish a complaint hotline and portal with a 30-day response time, and submit annual compliance reports to Congress. This bill directly affects all veterans interacting with VA services by clarifying their rights and the VA's obligations regarding benefits, healthcare, and communications. Implementation must occur within six months of the law's enactment.

This bill requires colleges and universities to include suicide prevention contact information on student identification cards or their websites. Specifically, institutions must list the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, Crisis Text Line, and their campus mental health center on student IDs (or post the info online if IDs aren't issued). The requirement applies to all higher education institutions creating student ID cards after the bill's enactment, with a one-year implementation period. It directly affects students by ensuring immediate access to critical mental health resources through a routine campus tool.

HR 1649, the Expanding Student Access to Mental Health Services Act, amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to allow states and school districts to use existing federal funds for student mental health services. It directs states to support mental health by identifying best practices for mental health first aid, establishing school emergency response teams, coordinating with local health providers, and expanding telehealth access. School districts must now specify how they will use funds for these mental health activities in their grant applications. The bill also permits schools to use technology infrastructure for mental health services without counting against separate technology funding limits.

This bill authorizes $25 million annually (2026-2030) to fund federal grants for training community mental wellness workers. Eligible entities - including community health clinics, mental health centers, and hospitals - will use these grants to provide culturally competent training for workers who screen for mental health/substance use issues and deliver basic counseling for conditions like depression and anxiety. Priority is given to organizations serving areas with high poverty, unemployment, substance use rates, or medically underserved communities. The grants cover training costs, digital platforms for supervision, and certification, with technical assistance provided to help integrate these workers into existing healthcare systems.

This bill (HR 4345) expands Medicare's definition of "critical access hospitals" to include certain hospitals located on Indian reservations, effective August 1, 2025. It directly affects these reservation hospitals by allowing states to designate them as critical access hospitals without needing to meet the usual distance requirement from other hospitals. Key provisions include waiving the distance rule for reservation facilities and permitting them to establish psychiatric or rehabilitation units without being limited by the standard bed count restrictions. This change aims to improve access to Medicare-covered services for patients at these reservation hospitals.

HR 4258 would expand Medicare's critical access hospital (CAH) program to include certain hospitals located on Indian reservations. Starting August 1, 2025, states could designate qualifying reservation hospitals as CAHs if they are more than 35 miles (or 15 miles in mountainous areas) from another reservation hospital or an Indian Health Service/tribal facility. This change would allow these hospitals to receive Medicare reimbursement under CAH rules, which provide higher payment rates for rural facilities. The bill also permits such hospitals to establish psychiatric or rehabilitation units without being restricted by the usual bed count limits for CAHs. This directly affects hospitals on tribal lands seeking improved Medicare funding access.

Building Resources and Access for Veterans' Mental Health Engagement Act of 2025 or the BRAVE Act of 2025 This bill addresses mental health services and care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including matters related to personnel, Vet Center administration, care for women veterans, and access to care. The bill authorizes the VA to waive the licensure or certification requirement for individual licensed professional mental health counselor appointees for a reasonable period of time. The bill also extends the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program and increases the maximum annual grant amount. The VA must provide Vet Centers with guidance for assessing outreach activities and implement processes to periodically assess the extent to which (1) veterans and eligible members of the Armed Forces experience barriers to obtaining services at Vet Centers, and (2) Vet Center staff may encounter barriers to providing services. Among other requirements, the VA must also survey and host listening sessions with women veterans to gauge the effectiveness of the VA’s suicide prevention, lethal-means safety, and mental health resources and messaging campaigns; initiate efforts to modify the Recovery Engagement and Coordination for Health-Veterans Enhanced Treatment (REACH VET) program to incorporate risk factors weighted for women; annually offer a mental health consultation to veterans who are receiving compensation for a service-connected disability relating to a mental health diagnosis; and implement a pilot program to provide access to mental health residential treatment programs for veterans with a spinal cord injury or disorder.

HR 5725, the Mental Health Crisis Response Act of 2025, establishes a federal grant program to help state and local governments create health-centered alternatives for mental health emergencies. It provides $25 million annually (2027-2031) for jurisdictions to embed mental health professionals in 911 systems, develop direct routing to crisis hotlines like 988, and build partnerships between emergency services and dispatch centers. The bill specifically aims to reduce law enforcement involvement in behavioral health crises by creating streamlined pathways to crisis care, without requiring police removal or overriding state emergency authority laws. Jurisdictions receiving grants must report on response times, use of force, and diversion rates to health services.

HR 6000, the Veterans’ Sentinel Act, requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to improve data collection and analysis of suicides and attempted suicides occurring on VA property. It mandates an annual evaluation of trends and prevention recommendations, establishes a working group to review root cause data (including Behavioral Health Autopsy Program findings), and standardizes data collection across VA facilities. The working group must develop unified reporting systems, modify incident forms to include on-campus suicide data, and coordinate with medical centers. The VA must submit annual briefings to congressional committees and a final report detailing the working group’s effectiveness and data management improvements. This bill directly affects VA facilities and veterans who experience suicide-related incidents on VA property.