[NYAPRS Enews] USPRA: Call Congress Today to Stop SAMHSA Cuts!

[Harvey Rosenthal]

 <https://netforum.avectra.com/public/DocumentGenerate.aspx?Image=66da8c7a-404d-44ce-8915-21b45e306802> 

 

BILL TO CUT MENTAL HEALTH FUNDING/SERVICES IN THE WORKS!!!

Ask your Representative to reject the House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Bill (HR 3070) which will cut funding for mental health and addiction services (SAMHSA) by 8.4 percent—a crippling, irreversible cut that would take years from which to recover. This bill comes on the heels of funding cuts already imposed in FY 2011 and further cuts in critical programs that ensure a strong public behavioral health infrastructure.

It is deeply troubling that the House would single out behavioral health at a time when most states have cut funding for mental health care by nearly $3.4 billion over the last three years. The brunt of the cuts to public health included in the bill would be borne by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 

In fact, HR 3070 cuts mental health funding by almost 25 percent; that would place their funding at the same level as in 1999. 

The prevention portfolio at SAMHSA would be particularly hard hit at a time when the Institute of Medicine, in a 2009 report, declared that the prevention of mental health and substance abuse conditions among young people must be a national priority.

Representative Grace Napolitano (D-CA) is circulating a Dear Colleague letter <http://uspra.ipower.com/PublicPolicy/napolitano_dear_colleague_letter.pdf>  urging Congress to reject the House’s cuts to SAMHSA. We must show and give our support for mental health and addictions funding by contacting our Representatives <http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/>  and asking them to support Congresswoman Napolitano’s Dear Colleague letter. 

Jane M. Porter

Director of Government Relations & Public Affairs

jporter at uspra.org <mailto:jporter at uspra.org> 

 






 

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