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Foxx Opposes Democrats’ H.R. 7780—a Blatant Power Grab

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 29, 2022

Today, Education and Labor Committee Republican Leader Virginia Foxx (R-NC) spoke on the House floor in opposition to H.R. 7780, the Mental Health Matters Act, due to its attack on job creators and its failure to address the nation's mental health situation:
 
“H.R. 7780, the Mental Health Matters Act, is a package of bills our country would be better off without.
 
“For example, Title VI of the bill, the Strengthening Behavioral Health Benefits Act contains dangerous policy which would threaten access to critical workplace benefits.
 
“How would this legislation drive employers to drop benefits? H.R. 7780 allows the Department of Labor (DOL) to level civil monetary penalties against plans and employers for ambiguous mental health parity violations. Employers who offer mental health benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) do so voluntarily. They should not be penalized for violating standards that are unclear and vague.
 
“Republicans and Democrats alike support mental health parity, which is why Congress has passed multiple laws to ensure employers are able to meet mental health parity requirements. Yet, despite receiving explicit direction from Congress outlining what DOL must provide to plans, the Department has yet to issue guidance. 
 
“Employers and plans have been asking the Department for years to comply with the law and provide examples which illustrate compliance and noncompliance, recommendations to advance compliance, and clarifying information on how plans may demonstrate compliance. However, instead of helping plans comply, DOL has blamed them for not being able to read the minds of Washington bureaucrats. Providing DOL with the authority to level civil monetary penalties against plans and increase their risk of litigation will only force plans to drop mental health coverage.
 
“This legislation would also increase DOL’s budget for mental health parity enforcement by an additional $275 million over 10 years—a sure sign DOL wants to double down on its aggression towards employers. This money would be better spent on compliance assistance instead of targeting employers based on ambiguous standards.
 
“Additionally, Title VII, the Employee and Retiree Access to Justice Act, gets rid of arbitration clauses, class action waivers, and discretionary clauses in employee benefit plans. This opens the door to increased litigation against plan sponsors which could drastically increase the cost of administering these plans.   
 
“Democrats are treating ERISA arbitration like a treacherous backroom deal, but in reality, arbitration settles disputes more quickly and more often in favor of claimants than litigation. The only people who benefit from months and years in litigation are trial lawyers.
 
“This bill also contains provisions regarding the youth mental health situation. There is bipartisan agreement that addressing the mental health of youth matters.
 
“However, we can’t ignore the fact that Democrats exacerbated the youth mental health situation by prolonging school shutdowns. At the behest of teachers unions, Democrat politicians from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to school district administrators kept classrooms shuttered, despite knowing that schools were not major vectors of spread and that children were suffering from this forced isolation. The results have been catastrophic.
 
“In 2021, more than one-third of high school students reported they experienced poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to one study, from February to March of 2021, the number of ER visits by young girls for suspected suicide attempts was up by more than 50 percent compared to 2019.
 
“School closures failed students.
 
“Which is why we should be spending our time addressing the massive learning loss students suffered because of these shutdowns. This is a problem that cannot be neglected, especially if we want to see these young people have as bright a future as possible.
 
“Lastly, H.R. 7780 includes the Respond, Innovate, Succeed, and Empower (RISE) Act, the intent of which Republicans support. While I agree that students with disabilities shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to obtain accommodations at school, this legislation will have unintended consequences as currently drafted.  
 
“For example, this legislation forces colleges and universities to accept outdated documentation from students who are claiming disability status but who do not in fact have a disability. This legislation should have been debated with stakeholders before being rushed to the House floor—but as usual Democrats took a shortcut.
 
“I would encourage my colleagues to work across the aisle and utilize the deliberative process to form more commonsense and targeted legislation if they actually want to address our country’s mental health situation.
 
“H.R. 7780 is a bill that tries to do too much—and none of it well. I urge my colleagues to vote no on this legislation.”

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