[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 175 (Tuesday, December 6, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H7187-H7188]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HELP AND HOPE FOR THE MENTALLY ILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Murphy) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, today is a day of joy, and 
it was, indeed, a long time in coming, but here we are.
  My time in Congress was redefined 4 years ago, on December 14, 2012, 
when 26 innocent lives were taken at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 
Newtown, Connecticut. Now, it is neither my district nor my State, but 
when it comes to children, all of us represent all children. 
Afterwards, when I met with the families, they gave me pictures of 
their children and spouses whom they lost that day, and I made a 
promise--the promise that we would not continue to watch passively or 
just offer moments of silence as these tragedies continue, that we 
should deliver, instead, treatment before tragedy.
  Today, Mr. Speaker, I say thanks to the Members of Congress who 
changed the course with me--who teamed up to finally change the way the 
United States treats the mentally ill. We set our eyes on one goal: to 
fix our Nation's broken mental health system. Since then, we have come 
together to work towards protecting millions of Americans who suffer 
from mental illness. We traveled to every corner of this Nation and 
listened to doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists, experts and 
advocates--most importantly, to patients, consumers, and their 
families.
  Through congressional hearings and investigations, we have discovered 
the abhorrent and sometimes fatal disconnect between the 112 Federal 
agencies that were assigned to treat the mentally ill. We exposed $130 
billion spending in a system that has done little but to watch the 
rates of homelessness, incarceration, suicide, and drug overdose deaths 
soar. We came together across party lines and went to work. We passed 
legislation that will save lives.
  I thank Fred Upton for his leadership on our Committee on Energy and 
Commerce with regard to H.R. 2646, the Helping Families in Mental 
Health Crisis Act, and for his tremendous medical innovation bill, the 
21st Century Cures Act.

[[Page H7188]]

  I thank Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas for her conviction and 
determination and for applying her experience as a psychiatric nurse to 
champion the cause that someone in crisis should be able to get 
treatment in a hospital and not just be locked up in a jail cell.
  I thank Speaker Ryan, who, in his very first days as Speaker of the 
House, pledged his support and determination to ensure that we would 
take action in the way that we treat the mentally ill in this Nation.
  To all of my colleagues in the House who spoke up, stepped up, and 
teamed up in our efforts to end the mental health crisis in America, 
thank you.
  I thank our colleagues in the Senate as well--Senator Chris Murphy, 
Dr. Bill Cassidy, and Senators Cornyn and Alexander--for their 
leadership in bringing this bill to a vote before the Senate. As the 
Senate takes up the bill today, I ask them all to cast their votes 
while being mindful of the millions of American lives it will save.
  Most importantly, I close by thanking the millions who had the 
courage to come forward and share their stories of pain and suffering 
under this broken system--those who have lost a loved one, those who 
have a loved one who is sitting in a jail cell or who is homeless in 
the streets.
  To those who have been the last, the least, the lost, and the lonely, 
know that we will continue to listen. In the final version of the 
Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, we did not get everything 
we needed, but we needed everything we got, and we will continue to 
work together.
  When we began this journey 4 years ago, I challenged us all to 
realize the sad reality of, where there is no help, there is no hope. 
Know now that, as we pass and enact this bill, we will finally be able 
to say there is help and, most assuredly, there is hope.

                          ____________________