Sponsors (11)
The bill uses federal grants to build non-police behavioral health mobile response capacity—improving access and reducing arrests especially in underserved areas—while imposing federal costs, facing state-law limits, and risking continued law-enforcement involvement and administrative burden for smaller agencies.
People experiencing behavioral health crises (including low-income and rural individuals) gain access to clinician- or EMS-led mobile crisis teams as non-police first responders.
Local governments, nonprofits, and EMS/fire agencies can expand crisis-response capacity by recruiting, training, and equipping clinicians and paramedics with federal grant support.
Jurisdictions without existing programs—especially underserved and rural areas—are prioritized for funding, increasing geographic equity in crisis response availability.
Taxpayers bear new federal spending for FY2026–FY2030 to fund the grants, creating budgetary costs without specified offsets.
Co-response models may still involve law enforcement (peace officers are included), risking continued criminalization or coercive encounters for some callers.
State laws may limit program features (e.g., EMS custody or involuntary transport), so some jurisdictions cannot implement the full range of changes the grants fund.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Establishes an HHS competitive grant program to build non–law‑enforcement behavioral health crisis response teams, with reporting and prioritization for underserved areas.
Introduced October 8, 2025 by Yassamin Ansari · Last progress October 8, 2025
Creates a competitive HHS grant program, run by the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, to help local, Tribal, regional EMS/fire, certified community behavioral health clinics, and partnered nonprofits build or expand behavioral health crisis response programs that do not rely primarily on law enforcement. Grants can fund hiring, training, equipment, integration with 911/988 dispatch, mobile crisis teams, community outreach, and EMS custody/transport protocols where state law permits. Grantees must provide annual reports on response outcomes, diversion rates, and community feedback; the agency must prioritize jurisdictions with little or no non-law-enforcement crisis response capacity and must define “co-response team.” Funding is authorized as needed for fiscal years 2026–2030 (appropriations required).