Not a Banner Budget Year for Federal MH Funding

Congress provided a small boost to most federal mental health programs under a massive year-end spending measure.

The $555 billion omnibus spending bill (HR 2764), which included funding for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education, would provide far more than President George Bush wanted but less than mental health advocates had hoped.

Part of the reason health care advocates found it “somewhat disappointing” was because Democratic leaders in Congress shaved domestic spending programs after the president vetoed an earlier Labor, HHS, and Education spending bill with higher funding levels, said Lizbet Boroughs, deputy director of APA's Department of Government Relations. Bush vetoed a stand-alone Labor-HHS-Education bill last November that exceeded his spending request by about $10 billion.

The Labor-HHS-Education section of the final measure included $144.8 billion in nonentitlement program spending, about $6 billion less than in the vetoed bill. Much of the reduction came from a 1.75 percent across-the-board spending cut among nondefense domestic programs, which congressional leaders used to come close to meeting Bush's spending ceiling for all discretionary spending other than defense.

Although most of the major mental health programs saw funding increases, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the final dollars were far less than mental health advocates had sought. The measure provided $3.2 billion to SAMHSA, or $27 million more than the previous fiscal year and $188 million more than the administration had requested. However, the Mental Health Liaison Group (MHLG), an advocacy group of more than 50 national organizations including APA, had urged lawmakers to provide much more.

One area in which SAMHSA funding fell short of advocates' goals was the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), which received a $27 million boost to $911 million. Advocates had urged a $75 million boost, in part, to expand support of local community mental health agencies' case management, emergency intervention, and 24-hour-hotline programs.

Within CMHS, $7 million was cut from the $428 million provided in Fiscal 2007 for mental health block grants, which provide nearly 40 percent of noninstitutional mental health spending in some states, according to a report by the MHLG.