Sponsors (14)
Authorizes a competitive grant program to fund state, tribal, and local health-centered crisis response strategies, with $25M/year authorized for FY2027–FY2031.
The bill helps communities route 911 callers in behavioral-health crises to trained mental-health responders and funds implementation, improving emergency care and reducing some police involvement, but funding is limited, reporting burdens are required, and existing police and involuntary-commitment roles remain intact—potentially constraining the policy's reach and civil-liberty benefits.
People experiencing behavioral-health crises (and communities they live in) can be routed to mental-health professionals through 911 dispatch or alternative routing to 988/crisis lines, providing specialized crisis triage and reducing inappropriate police responses.
Grant-funded partnerships and technical support create seamless handoffs (call transfers without hanging up), improving continuity of care during emergencies and better coordination with hospitals and behavioral-health providers.
The federal program provides dedicated funding—$25 million per year (FY2027–FY2031)—to help jurisdictions implement these 911-to-crisis programs, easing local budget burdens and lowering upfront costs to adopt new response models.
The $25 million per year cap is modest and likely insufficient to support nationwide implementation, leaving many communities—especially rural and resource-poor areas—without federal help.
The bill explicitly preserves law enforcement roles and state involuntary-commitment laws, so behavioral-health responses could still involve police or coercive treatment in many cases, limiting civil-liberty and decarceration gains for patients.
Grant recipients must submit annual reports on response times, use-of-force, and diversion rates, imposing administrative and compliance burdens (time, staffing, and costs) on local agencies implementing the program.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To direct the Attorney General to establish a grant to support communities transitioning to health-centered responses for mental health-related emergencies.
Introduced October 8, 2025 by Bonnie Watson Coleman · Last progress October 8, 2025
Creates a competitive federal grant program to help states, tribes, and local jurisdictions implement or expand health-centered crisis response options for behavioral health emergencies. Grants can pay for embedding mental health professionals in 911 triage, routing callers to crisis hotlines (like 988), and building partnerships that allow seamless handoffs; recipients must report annually on response time, use-of-force, diversion rates, and other outcomes. Congress authorizes $25 million per year for FY2027–FY2031 and directs the Attorney General, working with the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, to set up the program within 270 days of enactment.