[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 619 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 619
Supporting the goals and ideals of ``Minority Mental Health Awareness
Month'' and recognizing the disproportionate impacts of mental health
conditions and struggles on minority populations and communities.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 29, 2025
Ms. Crockett (for herself, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms. Matsui, Ms.
Salinas, Mr. Bell, Ms. Chu, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Cohen, Mr.
Fields, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Norton, Mr. Thanedar, Ms. Tokuda,
and Ms. Williams of Georgia) submitted the following resolution; which
was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Supporting the goals and ideals of ``Minority Mental Health Awareness
Month'' and recognizing the disproportionate impacts of mental health
conditions and struggles on minority populations and communities.
Whereas more than 1 in 5 adults in the United States live with a mental health
condition;
Whereas, in 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that
suicide was among the top 8 leading causes of death for people ages 10
through 64;
Whereas the stigma surrounding mental health conditions significantly
contributes to the decision of people with mental health conditions to
forego treatment;
Whereas minority persons are more likely to experience symptoms of diagnosable
mental health conditions than nonminorities, with Native and Indigenous
American adults reporting the highest rate of mental health conditions
of any single race-identifying group;
Whereas mental health conditions may first present themselves through
experiencing and noticing systematic racial inequities and racial
trauma;
Whereas Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders faced almost a 150-percent surge
in anti-Asian discrimination and xenophobic hate-related incidents
during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to exacerbated experiences of
stress, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation;
Whereas studies show that experiencing racial discrimination has led to a direct
link to mental health issues as this causes sustained levels of stress,
which lead to adverse physical, emotional, and mental health outcomes,
including post-traumatic stress disorder (``PTSD''), depression, and
heart disease;
Whereas Black adults are more likely to report frequent and consistent emotional
distress symptoms yet do not receive the help they need;
Whereas minority adults who have family income that is less than the Federal
poverty line are twice as likely to experience and report psychological
distress compared to adults who have family income that is in excess of
2 times the poverty line;
Whereas minority mental health providers make up less than one-fifth of the
profession, leading to a severe lack of access to representational
mental health professionals and culturally informed treatment options;
Whereas, in 2021, less than 13 percent of Latinx adults ages 18 to 44 who
experienced mental health conditions received treatment, in contrast to
over one-third of nonminorities;
Whereas language barriers result in the inaccessibility of and reluctancy to
seek health care and misdiagnoses and miscommunication between patient
and physician, which decrease the quality of care and cause adverse and
ineffective health outcomes;
Whereas disparities in insurance coverage for culturally specific mental health
conditions exist and have led to a reluctancy to seek health care among
minority communities;
Whereas Native and Indigenous persons face significant barriers to mental health
care services, clinics, and resources due to experiencing
disproportional health insurance coverage;
Whereas nearly half of pregnant persons who experienced depression were not
treated;
Whereas over half of pregnant minority individuals do not receive treatment or
resources for prenatal and postpartum mental health conditions;
Whereas pregnant persons who remain untreated for mental health conditions
related to anxiety, depression, and mood disorders face higher risks of
experiencing adverse pregnancy and birthing outcomes;
Whereas minority parents experience postpartum depression at a rate that is
double that of nonminority parents;
Whereas economic loss due to lack of productivity caused by untreated mental
health conditions is roughly $100,000,000,000 per year;
Whereas nearly three-fourths of minority children are less likely to receive a
diagnosis of ADHD/ADD compared to nonminority youth;
Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in reported symptoms of anxiety
and depression and in suicide death rates in minority communities as
compared to nonminorities;
Whereas suicide is one of the leading causes of death among Asian/Pacific
Islander American youth;
Whereas the percentage of Asian Americans and Native Hawaiian and Pacific
Islanders who reported having any mental illness in 2021 was 16 percent
and 18 percent, respectively;
Whereas only 25 percent of Asian Americans received mental health services
compared to non-Hispanic Whites;
Whereas roughly 8 percent of Asian Americans and over 15 percent of Native
Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders reported having a substance use disorder,
with 7 percent of Asian Americans reporting illicit drug use with
reported unmet treatment needs;
Whereas suicide rates among Black girls and boys have significantly increased
over the last several years;
Whereas, in 2021, 1 in 5 Black high school students reported seriously
considering attempting suicide in the past year, and that same year,
nearly 18 percent had made a suicide plan, and 15 percent reported
attempting suicide;
Whereas minority youth are more likely to enter the criminal justice system with
untreated mental health conditions;
Whereas people of color make up the majority of essential workers in areas of
food and agriculture and industrial, commercial, and residential
facilities and services, and their mental health worsened with the
increased risk of contracting COVID-19;
Whereas minority populations disproportionately face racial inequality in mental
health research requiring an increased need to ensure that diversified
data are reflective of current mental health experiences;
Whereas the Biden-Harris administration pioneered several mental health care
initiatives, including implementation of the mental health crisis
service hotline ``9-8-8'', and made significant investments in the
National Health Service Corps, the establishment of the National
Strategy for Suicide Prevention, the Behavioral Health Workforce
Education and Training Program, and the Minority Fellowship Program to
address the unprecedented mental health crisis;
Whereas recent actions by the Trump Administration have undercut investments and
jeopardized the improvements in addressing the unique needs of minority
communities in combating mental health challenges;
Whereas, within the first 100 days of the current Trump Administration, the
Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration terminated 10 percent of its staff,
including individuals operating the national 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis
Lifeline;
Whereas the Trump Administration's National Institutes of Health canceled over
900 Federal health grants, including those working on addressing racial
health disparities and increasing diversity in clinical research;
Whereas, following Executive Order 14151, the Secretary of Health and Human
Services directed employees to remove program descriptions involving
race, sex, and gender, and to revise requests for applications for
programs addressing diversity and inclusion in health;
Whereas Federal agencies under the Trump Administration were given a list of
words to review to limit, avoid, or remove from government websites,
including the following: ``anti-racism'', ``barriers'', ``bias'',
``BIPOC'', ``Black'', ``cultural differences'', ``discrimination'',
``disparity'', ``diversity'', ``equity'', ``ethnicity'', ``gender'',
``health disparity'', ``Hispanic minority'', ``immigrants'', ``LGBTQ'',
``mental health'', ``minorities'', ``Native American'', ``racial
minority'', ``sociocultural'', ``transgender'', ``tribal'',
``underrepresentation'', and ``women'';
Whereas the Trump Administration's Department of Education released plans to
reallocate over $1,000,000,000 in Federal mental health grant funding
for schools;
Whereas the aforementioned actions by the Trump Administration will cause
devastating harm to children and adults battling and seeking treatment
for mental health challenges; and
Whereas increased awareness and prioritizing prevention and treatment of mental
health conditions disproportionately impacting people of color are
critically needed to reduce the racial and ethnic disparities in
minority mental health condition rates as compared to nonminorities:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes the mental health disparities in our country
facing Black and Indigenous individuals and people of color in
the United States;
(2) calls on the President to increase mental health care
access that acknowledges the unique needs and incorporates
racial, cultural, and social differences that minority
communities experience;
(3) commits to continuing to work with, where appropriate,
the proper executive agencies to address the ongoing mental
health crisis across the United States, its territories, and
federally recognized Tribes; and
(4) seeks to provide as many resources and funds as
possible to mental health care services across the United
States, its territories, and federally recognized Tribes.
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