A California lawmaker has introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that they describe as “comprehensive legislation to help tackle our nation’s mental health crisis.”

Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier has reintroduced the “Mental Health Matters Act,” a bill he ran in 2022 and cleared the House on a 220-to-205 vote two years ago, according to a news release. 

“Having lost my dad to suicide, I am honored to introduce legislation to help other families by employing evidence-based resources to tackle the mental health crisis plaguing this country,” DeSaulnier said in a news release.

The text of the bill is not yet available. However, the legislation has a bill number and has been referred to the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, where DeSaulnier is a member and the ranking member of its Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor.

The release from DeSaulnier’s office states that the bill will boost access to mental health and addiction treatment by:

— Increasing the number of mental health professionals in K-12 settings, especially “high-need public schools”

— Establishing stronger links between schools and “local trauma-informed support and mental health systems”

— Requiring colleges to be more transparent about and more accommodating to students seeking disability accommodations

— Requiring the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop and implement support for children and staff in Head Start programs

— Strengthening the capacity of the U.S. Department of Labor to better enforce the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)

— Strengthening the ability of employer-sponsored, private and retirement health plans to hold sponsors accountable for improper denials.

“Mental health care is health care, and with one in five adults and one in six children experiencing mental illness each year, it’s imperative we take bold, comprehensive action to get quality support and resources to the millions of Americans in need,” DeSaulnier said in the release.

The 2022 version of the bill would have similarly given parity enforcement more teeth, banned forced arbitration agreements with payers and implemented several programs and funding opportunities through the U.S. Department of Education. The bill ultimately failed to become law.

In 2022, behavioral health reforms were top of mind, especially following a behavioral health-heavy “unity agenda” laid out by now-outgoing President Joe Biden during his first State of Union address.

Later that year, the nation was gripped in gun control versus mental health services discourse following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old man killed 19 children and two teachers. That resulted in the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which cleared Congress on June 24, 2022.