Legislative Alert and Update Archive

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Action Alert

• September 2002      Help amend NJ's Institutional Lien Laws - write your legislator

• August, 2002            August Recess: The Time Is Now to Engage Members of Congress

• July 2002                 Senate to Begin Debate on Prescription Drug Legislation This Week

• June 2002                Housing Anti-Discrimination Law Passes the Legislature

• May 2002                 Senate and Assembly Appropriations and Budget Leadership must stand firm and approve
                                 Governor McGreevey’s Fiscal Year ’03 Budget Recommendations

• May 30, 2002            Immediate Action Needed on McGreevey’s Fiscal Year ’03 Budget

• April 22, 2002           Family Opportunity Act Awaits Senate Mark-Up: Let Your Voice Be Heard

• April 19, 2002           Support Needed on McGreevey’s Fiscal Year ’03 Budget

• March 2002              Spring Recess: Hunt for Cosponsors and Increased Funding Urge your Members
                                  of Congress to Support New House Parity Bill and Increased Funding for FY 2003

• March 28, 2002         Gov McGreevey proposes that Redirection II and Children's Initiative remain in Budget
                                  and go  forward -- here's what you can do!

• March 2002               First-Ever House Parity Hearing Signals Momentum

• March 2002                Letter from NJ Mental Health Coalition to McGreevey

• March 18, 2002         Redirection II in Jeopardy: Write to Governor McGreevey

• February 2002          Action Alert: Signatures Needed to Save Redirection II  (download a petition)

• February 22, 2002     Action Needed on Children's Initiative

• December 2001        Action Needed to Save Redirection II

• December 2001        Expansion of the Children’s Initiative is in Jeopardy

• December 5, 2001    Last Push Needed on Parity Bill!

• November 2001        Last Chance to Get Our Tax Credits Passed this Year!

• November 15, 2001   Mental Health Parity Battle Underway

• November 7, 2001     Last Push Needed for Family Opportunity Act

• November 5, 2001     Senate-Passed Mental Health Parity Moves to the House

• October 29, 2001       Congress to Act Soon on $20 Billion Emergency-Response Funding Bill

• October 18, 2001       Senate Delivers Blow to Mental Health Funding

• October 5, 2001         Revision Needed on HUD's Work Incentives for People With Disabilities

• October 4, 2001         Advocate Housing Funds in Congress and the Administrations' Economic Stimulus Package

• September 26, 2001  Mental Health Infrastructure Funding a Priority

• September 21, 2001  Parental consent provision of H.R. 1, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

• September 17, 2001  Beware Scientologists Claiming To Be Mental Health Professionals

• February 28, 2001
  Please write or e-mail Governor DiFrancesco today urging him to aid the Association in moving our efforts forward and keeping Whitman's budget for Direct Care Salary increases ($80m) the closing of Greystone ($22m) and the Children’s Initiative, ($24m).
• February 6, 2001
  We need your support for the new managed care reform bill, “The Bipartisan Patient Protection Act of 2001” which includes many patient protections of importance to mental health consumers. 
• March 21, 2001
  Please make sure that your member of Congress and Senators are sponsors of The Family Opportunity Act of 2001. All MHAs are encouraged to contact their Representatives and Senators to urge them to sponsor this bill, if they are not already sponsors.
• March 21, 2001
  Your help is needed to mobilize support for the Mental Health Parity Bill--both S. 543, the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2001, in the Senate, and H.R. 162, the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Parity Amendments of 2001 in the House. 
• March 14, 2001
  NMHA urges MHAs to write or email the White House to reaffirm Bush's commitment to the ADA in connection with the recent decision in Alabama v Garrett decision by the Court.
• April 26, 2001
  The Bush Administration proposed to freeze spending for most mental health programs under the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) and to cut others.
• April 27, 2001
  Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives are introducing the Mental Illness Consumer-Run Services Support Act, which addresses the critically important role that peer-support services can play in recovery from mental illness.
• June 25, 2001
  As the Senate began debate last week on the McCain-Kennedy-Edwards Bipartisan Patient Protection Act of 2001 (S. 1052, formerly S. 283), opponents of managed care reform ramped up their efforts to kill this legislation.
• July 6, 2001
  The House and Senate have adopted very alarming amendments, which would strip away hard-fought protections established under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for schoolchildren with mental illnesses and other disabilities.
• July 10, 2001
  Two important bills, introduced last week with broad bipartisan support under the leadership of Rep. Jim Greenwood, R-OH, and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-OH, would provide new avenues of recovery for people with mental illnesses. NMHA brought these proposals to the House sponsors.
• July 20, 2001
  Bipartisan Patient Protection Act of 2001 would establish an array of new federal protections for consumers
  enrolled in managed care health plans, and many of these protections are of particular importance to mental health care consumers.
• July 25, 2001
  The House and Senate, in passing differing versions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), H.R. 1, adopted very alarming amendments, which would ease the way for schools to deny educational services to children with mental illnesses and other disabilities as a disciplinary measure for even minor infractions.
  

Legislative Updates

• April 10, 2001
  NMHA urges Congress to protect mental health following release of the President Bush’s Year 2002 budget proposal.
• April 4, 2001
  NMHA strongly endorses the introduction of The Medicare Mental Health Modernization Act of 2001 to modernize mental health benefits under Medicare.
• March 15, 2001
  Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN) introduce the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2001, which provides full parity for all categories of mental health conditions listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).

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