Psychiatric News July 15, 2005
Volume 40 Number 14
© 2005 American Psychiatric Association
p. 7
Bill Barring MH Screenings Defeated
Legislation based on an inaccurate assertion that the 2003 landmark report
of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health calls for mandatory
screening of children for mental illness and their forced medication without
informed parental consent was defeated last month in the House of
Representatives for the second year in a row.
The legislation, introduced both years by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), was in
the form of an amendment to the House Labor, Health and Human Services (LHHS)
Fiscal 2006 legislation (HR 3010). It prohibited the use of federal funds to
create or implement a universal mental health screening program.
The amendment was defeated by voice vote and later a recorded vote of
304-97.
APA led the latest effort to secure the legislation's defeat. Paul
initially introduced the legislation earlier this year as the Parental Consent
Act of 2005 (HR 181). At that time APA and the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry sent a letter to members of the House and Senate calling
on them to oppose the legislation (Psychiatric News, March 18).
Before the vote on the amendment was taken, Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio),
chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on LHHS, spoke in opposition to the
amendment, saying that there are no federal funds that can be used for
screening without parental consent. He also noted that Mike Leavitt, secretary
of Health and Human Services, had testified before the subcommittee that the
Bush administration never has and never will support screening without
parental consent. 
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