S3388-118

Introduced

To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants to States, Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and political subdivisions thereof to hire, employ, train, and dispatch mental health professionals to respond in lieu of law enforcement officers in emergencies involving one or more persons with a mental illness or an intellectual or developmental disability, and for other purposes.

118th Congress Introduced Dec 4, 2023

Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.

Summary

What This Bill Does

This bill, To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants to States, Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and political subdivisions thereof to hire, employ, train, and dispatch mental health professionals to respond in lieu of law enforcement officers in emergencies involving one or more persons with a mental illness or an intellectual or developmental disability, and for other purposes., changes federal law or congressional policy affecting law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors. The main policy domain is Criminal Justice, Civil Rights, Government Operations.

Who Benefits and How

law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors may benefit from new authority, funding, eligibility, regulatory clarity, or reduced risk created by the bill.

Who Bears the Burden and How

federal implementing agencies, law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors may take on implementation duties, reporting obligations, compliance costs, or oversight responsibilities.

Key Provisions

  • Section H581EF490436742299D925D862B9DA6D1: 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Mental Health Justice Act of 2023.
  • Section H0BD9EF74131B4587A15101237C1F588E: 2. Grants for mental health professionals to act as first responders Subpart 3 of part B of title V of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–31 et...
  • Section H1425CEDC08B7445ABBE3401447FDDB23: 520O. Grants for mental health professionals to act as first responders The Secretary, acting through the Assistant Secretary, and in consultation with the...
  • Section H63C4F394F78E419D8B6E60233948D256: 3. Study The Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice shall conduct...
  • Section HA28DF917E49D49DDAB5BD5F8A8D31AD0: 4. Best practices The Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, shall develop and...

Evidence Chain:

This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.

At a Glance

What This Bill Does

This bill, To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants to States, Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and political subdivisions thereof to hire, employ, train, and dispatch mental health professionals to respond in lieu of law enforcement officers in emergencies involving one or more persons with a mental illness or an intellectual or developmental disability, and for other purposes., changes federal law or congressional policy affecting law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors.

Key Policy Areas

Criminal Justice, Civil Rights, Government Operations

Primary Purpose

This bill, To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants to States, Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and political subdivisions thereof to hire, employ, train, and dispatch mental health professionals to respond in lieu of law enforcement officers in emergencies involving one or more persons with a mental illness or an intellectual or developmental disability, and for other purposes., changes federal law or congressional policy affecting law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors.

Policy Domains

Criminal Justice Civil Rights Government Operations

Whole bill

Identified Gains
  • law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors
Model: codex-gpt-5 | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors: ,
Identified Costs
  • federal implementing agencies
  • law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors
Model: codex-gpt-5 | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
federal implementing agencies: ,
law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors: ,

Legislative Progress

Introduced
Introduced Committee Passed
Dec 4, 2023

Ms. Warren (for herself, Ms. Smith, Ms. Klobuchar, and Mr. …

Stakeholder Effects

cui bono?

How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.

Government
2 mentions across 2 clauses
-2 negative

Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services, Department of Justice

Healthcare
2 mentions across 2 clauses
+2 positive

Mental health professionals acting as first responders, States, Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and political subdivisions thereof

State & Local Government
2 mentions across 2 clauses
+1 positive ?1 uncertain

State and local emergency dispatch centers, State and local law enforcement agencies

Law Enforcement
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

Career law enforcement officers

Health Care Providers
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

Mental health professionals

5/6
sections analyzed
Full impact breakdown

Bill Structure & Actor Mappings

Who is "The Secretary" in each section?

Domains
Criminal Justice Civil Rights Government Operations
Actor Mappings
"secretary_of_health_and_human_services"
→ Secretary of Health and Human Services

Key Definitions

Terms defined in this bill

2 terms
"peer support specialist" §H0BD9EF74131B4587A15101237C1F588E

an individual who— has lived experience of a mental health condition, a substance use disorder, or a co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder

"peer support specialist" §H1425CEDC08B7445ABBE3401447FDDB23

an individual who— has lived experience of a mental health condition, a substance use disorder, or a co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder

We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.

Learn more about our methodology