[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 21, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H8048-H8052]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Stansbury). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Bowman) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority 
leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BOWMAN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BOWMAN. Madam Speaker, tonight, I am convening a Special Order 
hour for the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and we are focused on 
the urgent matter of our children's mental health, which is in crisis.
  Madam Speaker, I want everyone listening to me now to think about 
their childhood.
  What stressors, if any, did you experience?
  What kept you up at night?
  What made your heart skip a beat or your palms sweaty?
  What seemed completely overwhelming?
  Now think of who was there to help you, listen to you, and comfort 
you.

[[Page H8049]]

Now imagine that stressor, and imagine dealing with that same issue in 
a time when the worldwide pandemic forced you to remain at home for 
more than 1 year before you returned to school with constantly 
fluctuating COVID policies; in a world where the book you read last 
year is banned in school now; in a world where you spend a significant 
amount of time on social media consuming stories and pictures of other 
peoples' lives, and that includes coming across lies and 
disinformation; in a world where a former President wanted to build a 
wall, where death is ubiquitous, and where food, gas, and housing 
prices are so high you often go without the basic necessities; in a 
world where the Supreme Court has stripped basic human rights that your 
parents and grandparents were able to enjoy.
  Could you imagine being a child right now and juggling your mental 
health?
  Mental health is essential for overall health, and ignoring that 
basic fact is harmful to our children who are counting on us to do 
everything in our power to support them during this difficult time.
  This pandemic has exacerbated many preexisting challenges, stressors, 
and trauma experienced by our youth.
  It has also caused many new challenges.
  In December 2021, the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, issued 
an advisory highlighting the urgent need to address the Nation's youth 
mental health crisis.
  Last fall, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy 
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children's Hospital 
Association jointly declared a national state of emergency in 
children's mental health.
  Prior to coming to Congress, I had the privilege of serving New York 
City children in our public schools for over 20 years. I served as an 
elementary school teacher, a high school guidance counselor, and a 
middle school principal.
  The education, care, and well-being of our children are my life's 
work, and it is an honor to speak on the floor tonight to highlight an 
urgent issue that is critical to the health and safety of our children 
and the future of our democracy: our children's mental health.
  During the 2017-2018 school year, 34 children died within the K-12 
school system in the Bronx, and 17 died via suicide. In early 2018, the 
horrible Parkland High School shooting happened, killing 17 children 
and wounding 17 more while leaving a nation reeling in despair.

  During this time as a middle school principal, I saw a rise in 
student self-harm and suicidal ideation in kids as young as 11 years 
old. It was these factors that ultimately led me to run for Congress in 
the first place.
  Since the pandemic, an unprecedented number of our young people feel 
helpless and hopeless right now, and we need to make an unprecedented 
effort for a coordinated, comprehensive response. That is why at the 
end of last year we called for a new COVID relief package that 
considers the needs of the whole child to support overall health, 
including youth mental health.
  The toll of the pandemic is daunting when we consider its impact on 
children. In the past 2 years, more than 167,000 children across the 
country have lost a parent or primary caregiver to COVID-19. These 
caregivers provided a child's most important basic needs: love, 
security, food, and shelter. More than 13,000 of these children lost 
their only caregiver. In fact, for every four COVID-19 deaths, one 
child in the U.S. loses a parent.
  A student in my district in Yonkers shared her experience of suddenly 
losing her father to COVID followed by her mother testing positive. She 
described her fear and not being able to sleep while her mother was in 
an induced coma for 9 days. She couldn't eat, and she couldn't go to 
school. Because of her father's immigration status, he was excluded 
from almost all types of medical insurance and was forced to choose 
between basic healthcare and food.
  Her story is not the only one like this, which is why we need to 
drive resources so that schools can directly support students' mental 
health and so we can break down barriers to basic, necessary healthcare 
for all regardless of immigration status.
  After experiencing the major traumatic loss of a parent, we know the 
world as these children knew it has ended. Loss and grief are a part of 
life, but in children grieving, a major loss can have lifelong impacts 
of depression, post-traumatic stress, and anxiety.

                              {time}  1715

  For parents and those of us who work directly with children, it is 
heartbreaking to see one child grieving. With this vast number of 
grieving children, our entire community must be ready to empathize and 
mobilize the help they need to cope.
  In addition to the stress youth are under as a result of COVID-19 and 
this ongoing pandemic, they are also facing other mental health issues 
as they navigate puberty and being an adolescent. Youth across the 
country are battling substance abuse, eating and body image disorders, 
facing various forms of peer pressure, anxiety, and overall trying to 
learn how to manage their emotions and feelings during their formative 
years. This is a reality across racial and economic lines.
  Still, meaningful mental health care is out of reach for so many 
children. Native American or Indigenous children are 4\1/2\ times as 
likely as White children to have lost a parent to COVID. Black children 
are almost 2\1/2\ times more likely than White children, and Hispanic 
children are nearly twice as likely than White children to have lost a 
parent or caregiver.
  When we also consider that many families who face job losses, loss of 
insurance, financial hardships, and a lack of school-based mental 
health professionals, the barriers to youth mental health support are 
unacceptable.
  Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the 
gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Watson Coleman).
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for 
organizing this very important moment on the floor of the House of 
Representatives to address what is a critical, urgent issue, and crisis 
in our country right now.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today to draw attention to this public health 
crisis that our Nation has yet to adequately address. Over the last 13 
years, youth mental well-being has plummeted. The Surgeon General's 
office reported that between 2009 and 2019, the share of high school 
students reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness increased by 40 
percent, while the share of those contemplating suicide increased by 36 
percent.
  The COVID pandemic has only made this worse. The youth mental health 
crisis--in many ways, a pandemic of its own--has only worsened in 
recent years. While the President's COVID response has been 
significantly more effective than that of his predecessor, we cannot 
properly address COVID without addressing the mental health 
consequences of over 2 years of isolation, uncertainty, and historic 
amounts of death and suffering.
  Black and Brown youth are among those hurting the most. In 2019, my 
Emergency Task force on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health found 
alarming increases in suicide rates among Black youth, in part caused 
by racial disparities in access to care. As of last year, that rate of 
increase is more than twice as high for Black girls and Black boys.
  In response to this, I introduced the Pursuing Equity in Mental 
Health Act, which would invest in our entire mental health care system. 
That means not just funding additional mental health research, but also 
establishing a stigma-shattering outreach program and building a 
larger, stronger, more culturally competent mental health care 
workforce.
  To fight America's youth mental health crisis, we must prioritize 
equity and do everything in our power to eliminate racial and gender-
based mental health disparities. This is an important moment in our 
time in Congress. We have devastation, sadness, and incredibly 
devastating responses to sadness at a very young age.
  Madam Speaker, I did not know that a 5-year-old could comprehend that 
ending his or her life was an answer to the pain that he or she has 
been experiencing, but I know that it has happened. As a result of 
seeing those posts over and over and over and over again on Facebook 
and other platforms, that

[[Page H8050]]

is what motivated me to pull together that emergency task force. It has 
yielded such tremendous information that we need as a country to know--
to know that we need to invest in all aspects of healthcare as it 
relates to the disparities that exist with access to mental health care 
as well as just healthcare in general.
  We must do better. We have so much to overcome. We can do better, and 
I look forward to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both 
Houses to work collaboratively to do better for this next generation.
  Mr. BOWMAN. Madam Speaker, I thank Mrs. Watson Coleman for her 
leadership and her voice in this important matter.
  Madam Speaker, I want to talk briefly before yielding to 
Representative Carter from New Orleans. I want to speak briefly about 
the role of schools in addressing the issue of mental health.
  Our schools play an essential role in supporting positive mental 
health for our youth. In order to serve the whole child, we cannot 
limit our Federal support to only academic outcomes. Children are much 
more likely to receive mental health services in the school than 
anywhere else, but the problem is that too few of our schools have 
enough mental health professionals on staff, including psychologists, 
social workers, and counselors. The ratio of students to school 
psychologists is roughly 1400 to 1.
  Just this year I hosted a town hall with students in my district who 
shared how hard it was for them to meet with a counselor or mental 
health professional at school. The students with more access to mental 
health resources went to schools in wealthier parts of my district.
  As a former principal, I know firsthand how important it is that the 
schools have the resources to employ mental health professionals. More 
than 14 million students attend a school with police officers or school 
resource officers, but no counselors, nurses, psychologists, or social 
workers on staff.
  The way we allocate resources is a reflection of our priorities and 
our values, which is why I support unprecedented levels of funding that 
prioritizes the mental health of all our students by making sure there 
are trained, culturally competent mental health professionals in every 
public school, including more Black and Brown mental health 
professionals.
  For the last 2\1/2\ years, we have seen our schools at the front 
lines of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In many ways, we as a 
society have shifted how we think about what it means to care for our 
young people in the face of multiple public health crises.
  Together, with our schools leading the way, we worked to create a 
safety net for our children and prioritize the well-being of the whole 
child. These are the kinds of investments that can buffer children from 
chronic stress that can lead to adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs.
  It should go without saying, our kids are so much more than any one 
test score or academic measure. Children are individuals who are 
members of their community, and our schools should be subsequently 
funded and equipped as community hubs. Supporting our children's 
success is fundamentally intertwined with supporting the whole child in 
a well-coordinated ecosystem of wraparound services.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Louisiana 
(Mr. Carter).
  Mr. CARTER of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank Congressman Bowman 
for organizing this hour to discuss such a critical issue, and I thank 
him for his leadership.
  Madam Speaker, today I rise in support of the opportunity to shine 
light on this critical issue of mental health. Our children are our 
most precious treasures. For many of us, they are our reason why.
  Why we work two jobs. Why we go to school. Why we try to overcome 
personal challenges and become the best version of ourselves. Yet, our 
system is failing to help our dear children fight their own demons. 
From kindergartners to young adults, young people of all ages are 
struggling with mental health and that they are not being met with the 
services they need to be happy, to be healthy, and tragically, to save 
their lives.
  It is truly a crisis, and like most crises we face, the situation is 
worse for some communities than others, and certainly it is the case 
for communities of color.
  Here is a terrifying statistic: Black children under the age of 13 
are twice as likely to die by suicide compared to their White peers--
twice as likely.
  Further, children who survive natural disasters--like many of my 
constituents in southeast Louisiana--are left with emotional scars that 
can impact them for their entire lives. A new study published by the 
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry found that the stress of 
experiencing a natural disaster during a pregnancy can substantially 
increase the risk of childhood depression and anxiety.
  It is clear that we are in a crisis, and we must act to meet the 
moment. I am so grateful that the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies 
of New Orleans has been granted $400,000 from HHS for an initiative to 
help identify health and wellness policies that are successful in 
improving Black youth mental health, and including suicide prevention.
  This year, Congress just passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, 
which will help keep guns out of the hands of individuals who are in 
danger of potentially hurting themselves or others. But this historic 
bill also includes $500 million for school-based mental health 
services, and millions more for certified community behavioral health 
clinics and mental health telehealth.
  This year, we also launched the 988 hotline, a mental health hotline 
and text line, where people can reach trained counselors in their time 
of need. We must, we can, we will do more. We must make mental health 
service easy, accessible, and affordable to everyone, particularly our 
children.
  We must tear down the stigma and equalize mental health and physical 
health. It is okay to not be okay. Everyone needs support at a 
different point in their lives. Everyone needs a little extra help 
sometimes. Everyone can feel a little down sometimes. Everyone has 
issues that they think are insurmountable. But guess what? With help, 
with treatment, help is there, and you can survive it. You have got to 
know that.
  Don't ever be afraid to ask for help. Don't ever be afraid to admit 
that you just don't feel right. Don't ever be afraid to admit that you 
don't fit in, that you feel different. Help is there. And we have all 
had moments where we needed help. You have got to know that you can 
survive, and you will survive this.
  We must all be trained about the signs of mental health crises and 
look out for one another. Implementing many of these programs and 
supporting the mental health professionals who provide these services 
may have a significant price tag, and from my perspective, it is 
essential.
  Any dollar that we spend, any money that we appropriate that saves a 
life, that gives individuals hope that we care and that resources are 
available, are dollars well spent.
  We need to do more. We need to invest in programs and have staff that 
change and save lives. We need to do it now. We need to continue to 
fight. Our children are worth it.
  When someone has high blood pressure, they exercise, they diet, they 
take a pill. If someone has diabetes, they exercise, they diet, they 
take a pill. They modify their lifestyles, and they are not ashamed to 
admit those things. Mental health is no different.
  There is nothing wrong with admitting that you may need help because 
help is there for you, and we know empirically that the resources are 
there, and they make a difference. We have got to get away from feeling 
like if we need help that somehow some way that means something is 
wrong with me. Well, there is nothing wrong with you. There is nothing 
more wrong with you than a person that has a headache who takes an 
aspirin.

                              {time}  1730

  There is nothing more wrong with you than somebody who has high blood 
pressure and takes blood pressure medicine. We can fix it. You are not 
alone. It is important that you know.
  To anyone who is struggling, who has children or young people in 
their lives who are struggling, you are not alone.

[[Page H8051]]

You will never be alone. Things will get better.
  Reach out. 988 is available to you 24/7. Experts are waiting to heed 
your call. Organizations are funded to help you. We are here to help 
you.
  You are not alone, and you can and will survive.
  Mr. BOWMAN. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Carter so much for 
his powerful words and leadership and for being here this evening.
  When we consider the toll of a nationwide youth mental health crisis, 
our mission must be to show love to our youth and to help our young 
people learn to love themselves, their communities, and our planet.
  In the face of so many real-world challenges, like the climate 
crisis, the pandemic, and extreme inequality and discrimination, it is 
essential that children's learning prioritizes creativity, innovation, 
critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration as 
these approaches all support the mental health and the overall 
development of our children. These are the 21st century learning skills 
that will empower and teach our students how to think, not what to 
think.
  When the purpose of education is about fostering the value and ethic 
of lifelong learning as a fundamental pillar of democracy, it is 
abundantly clear that promoting positive mental health is fundamental 
to that work.
  But when we try to apply a business model to our schools and treat 
our students as commodities, making the necessary investments in mental 
health support and social and emotional learning gets sidelined in 
favor of a more simplistic bottom line that improperly fixates on the 
results of an annual assessment.
  We have subjected our public schools to this model for 20 years, and 
it hasn't addressed inequity in our schools. It has not closed any 
gaps. What it has done is limit what gets taught and how it gets 
taught.
  It has prioritized doing well academically over developing the 
lifelong skills that you need, including your emotional health and 
well-being. It has made students feel that their chance to live a 
quality life with opportunities hinges on how they do on a singular 
exam.
  We have the opportunity to change this, finally, and do right by our 
students. The idea that our schools should be equipped to meet the 
holistic needs of their students is not one that should exist only in a 
time of a pandemic. We cannot go back to our old ways of thinking about 
schools just in terms of narrowly defined academic performance.
  Even before the pandemic, rates of young people experiencing mental 
health issues were rising. Between 2007 and 2019, the percentage of 
adolescents reporting a major depressive episode increased by nearly 60 
percent. By 2019, mental health disorders had exceeded physical 
conditions as the most common cause of impairments and limitations 
amongst children.
  I saw the gaps in our health system up close. Schools are the most 
common place for children to access mental health services, but most 
schools do not meet recommended ratios for school psychologists, social 
workers, or counselors. Instead, even before the pandemic, we saw 
pediatricians, teachers, school leaders, and more stepping in to try to 
provide mental health services, despite many of them not feeling fully 
equipped to do so. The pandemic only exacerbated all of these issues 
and put further strain on a health system that was already not built to 
adequately support youth mental health.
  As COVID surged, emergency room visits for young people having a 
mental health crisis increased dramatically. Since 2019, ER visits for 
suspected suicide attempts rose 51 percent amongst girls ages 12 to 17. 
But high COVID hospitalization rates and, later, the surge of new 
variants, combined with inadequate vaccination rates, mean that we had 
and continue to have a shortage of hospital beds and emergency rooms to 
service young people having a mental health crisis.
  In an op-ed by a constituent of mine, Jonathan Slater, a child and 
adolescent psychiatrist, described children and teenagers at his 
hospital having to wait 3 to 4 days for an inpatient bed.
  The strain on hospital capacity caused by the ongoing pandemic means 
our ability to adequately treat all other physical and mental health is 
jeopardized. The more people get vaccinated and boosted, that means 
fewer people in the hospital, and it means the 15-year-old who lost her 
parent to COVID and hasn't experienced a normal school year since she 
was 12 can get access to the emergency mental health care that she 
needs.
  I want to express immense gratitude for the many people, teachers, 
school leaders, pediatricians, school bus drivers, emergency room 
physicians, and staff who have stepped in to confront the youth mental 
health crisis head-on. But we cannot address youth mental health 
without addressing issues we face in our broader healthcare system and 
without addressing workforce issues in mental health professions.
  As we continue to face compounding public health and mental health 
crises among our young people, we have to recognize that cultivating a 
better Nation, marked by healthy and happy young people who are 
equipped to engage critically and collaboratively with their 
communities and our democracy, requires us to continue on the path of 
rethinking schools and their purpose and potential.
  We need Federal investments and resources in our schools that reflect 
these priorities, and that means putting the mental health and well-
being of our students front and center as we move forward.
  Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the 
gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib), and I thank her very much for 
being here.
  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I thank the ever-amazing partner in good 
trouble, Congressman Bowman, for hosting this Special Order hour on one 
of the most critical issues facing our Nation, youth mental health.
  As a mother of two young boys, I know that there are few people who 
see this mental health crisis amongst our children quite like our 
teachers and our educators. They are on the front lines of it every 
single day, and it is in no way an exaggeration to say America's 
teachers are the ones saving lives in the face of a tidal wave of 
trauma and grief brought about by many crises impacting our young 
people today.
  From COVID-19 to schools turning into war zones, severe economic 
hardship, and an education system that continues to be underfunded for 
a number of issues that, again, our kids are dealing with, we are 
seeing that trauma is at the center of it.
  I know according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 57.8 
percent of Michiganders from the age of 12 to 17 who have experienced 
depression did not receive any care in the last year, and high school 
students with depression are more than two times more likely to drop 
out than their peers.
  These are just a few of the compounding traumas impacting our young 
people today. These traumas have stolen our children's sense of safety 
and our children's support systems. So, the fact that the rates of 
youth in mental health distress have skyrocketed should be a surprise 
to no one, especially not anyone in this body.
  We have failed to address gun violence. We have failed to protect 
basic human rights. We have failed to ensure that every child in the 
richest nation on Earth has access to the clean air, safe water, and 
healthy food that they need to grow and thrive. We have failed to truly 
address childhood poverty.
  Instead of investing in schools, combating poverty, and taking action 
on reducing violence, this body continues to double down on failed 
approaches.
  I know I continue to be asked in my community: What good is another 
100 F-35s when our children go to sleep on empty stomachs? What is the 
point of spending more money on militarization of our communities than 
any other country spends on defense instead of making sure that our 
children have safe drinking water and that they are not exposed to lead 
and PFAS?
  While our children are crying out for help as loud as they can, over 
in the Senate, their elected leaders, many of whom have been bought and 
paid for by the fossil fuel lobby, are working hard to--you guessed 
it--sell out their chances at a livable future and improve the lives of 
many of our folks in the future.
  This body, this Congress, isn't just failing to address this youth 
mental health crisis. It is turbocharging it.
  I know in my community, we have the most polluted ZIP Code in the

[[Page H8052]]

State of Michigan, 48217, where we see high rates of asthma. When I go 
read to children in the third grade class during March Reading Month, I 
ask how many children there know what I do for a living, and they don't 
know, usually, and I have to give them a civics lesson. I tell them 
that I am trying to fight for clean air. I ask them: ``How many of you 
have asthma or are suffering from asthma?'' A third of the class always 
raises their hands.
  I ask them: ``It hurts to have an asthma attack, doesn't it? It is 
hard to breathe. Isn't it hard to breathe?'' They shake their heads.
  Every day, we fail. We fail them by not taking action on climate for 
a livable future.
  Please know this: Our children cannot learn if they are hungry, but 
they also cannot learn if they are breathing dirty air, if they are 
being poisoned by lead-infested water, so we must take action.
  I know that we also have failed to enact real, meaningful gun control 
that our children can be proud of, that our teachers can feel is 
meaningful and that it actually does keep them safe.
  Every day that we have failed to enact bold reforms to resurrect and 
protect our democracy is a day closer to dooming our children to a 
fascist future where their rights are stripped from them.
  This isn't new for our communities, but I know for many of the young 
people of color in my community, the LGBTQI youth, our immigrant youth, 
our religious minorities, these failures have been amplified by the 
horrifying pandemic of racism, bigotry, and hate that has exploded in 
our country.
  Make no mistake, the crisis of hate facing our country is 100 percent 
the result of continued political motivation that is literally a factor 
in pushing elected officials and social leaders in spewing out fear 
rather than trying to address the root causes of the issues that our 
children are facing.
  I know the only solution here is fundamental overhaul of what we 
govern. We must put our children before corporations, people before 
profits, and community solidarity before hate and fear.
  Madam Speaker, I cannot thank my colleague enough for his incredible 
leadership. Sometimes it is our lived experiences that we bring into 
this Chamber that give us the passion and inspiration to work hard. I 
am so honored to be able to serve with somebody that not only was a 
principal but is also a father himself and understands and has been on 
the front line and seen the lack of action in this body for our youth 
mental health crisis in our country.
  Mr. BOWMAN. Madam Speaker, I thank Rashida for her voice. It is good 
to see her and be with her.
  Tonight, we have heard from Members who represent communities across 
the country. The youth mental health crisis is a national crisis that 
requires an all-of-government response. Our children deserve nothing 
less.
  There were so many voices that contributed to these remarks this 
evening from my district, New York-16. I recognize them at this moment.
  Making the necessary investments in our youth mental health will take 
all of us at every level of government and in every community.
  I give a special shout-out to constituents of mine who shared their 
priorities around youth mental health. Jonathan Lewis, a Scarsdale 
Village trustee, shared how important it is to understand the 
relationship between a mental health crisis and learned outcomes to our 
students, not just in an academic sense but also with respect to school 
climate and the importance of creating a learning environment that is 
safe from violence.

  Stephanie Marquesano from the harris project in Ardsley highlighted 
how important it is that communities, youth, and all levels of 
government be in dialogue with each other about the intersection of 
mental health and substance use disorders, particularly as it relates 
to our youth.
  Ron Hartridge, educator and advocate in the Bronx, expressed his deep 
concern regarding the impact that trauma and fear have on our children 
and how important it is to equip our schools to support students 
instead of prioritizing compliant behavior, which is so often used to 
justify and perpetuate the school-to-prison pipeline.
  Jonathan Alvarez from 914United in Yonkers called for meaningful 
juvenile justice reform in the Lower Hudson Valley.
  Darryl Taylor, a Tuckahoe Village trustee, wrote in about the toll of 
the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly on our youth who lost loved ones, 
parents, siblings, or friends, and the urgency we must have to reach 
out to our youth who may be feeling alone in their grief and 
hopelessness.
  Mary Graves, Mount Vernon's Democratic chair, shared how important it 
is that we make mental health resources and support available to the 
whole community and consider how there isn't a one-size-fits-all 
approach to mental health.
  Julie Cordin from my district shared how troubling it is to learn 
that suicidal ideation and attempted suicides amongst children 
increased during the pandemic and that this will not go away on its 
own. We have to work on this together. I am so grateful to all of my 
constituents who care so deeply about our youth, both locally and 
nationally.

  The youth mental health crisis is a national crisis that requires an 
all-of-government response. Our children deserve nothing less.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________