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Please Urge Lawmakers to Co-Sponsor the Keeping Families Together ActFebruary 12, 2007—Ask your Senators and Representative to co-sponsor the Keeping Families Together Act (KFTA). The bill was introduced in the House by Representatives Jim Ramstad (R-MN), Pete Stark (D-CA) and Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and by Senators Collins (R-ME) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) in the Senate last week. This bipartisan legislation (S. 382 and H.R. 687) is vital to address the tragically common practice of child custody relinquishment solely to gain access to necessary mental health treatment. The bill targets a child mental health system in crisis—one that too often makes working parents, when they can no longer afford mental health services for a child with a severe mental disorder, choose between relinquishing custody or impoverishing themselves to qualify for Medicaid. A report by the Government Accountability Office documented the tragic consequences, finding that in 2001, parents in the 19 states that responded to a survey placed 12,700 children in child welfare or juvenile justice agencies to get mental health services for them. KFTA would provide $100 million in new family support grants to states that end the practice of child custody relinquishment. States awarded the competitive grants would have to create statewide care-coordination programs so that parents can access necessary mental health treatment for their children and support services that keep families together. The competitive grants are authorized at $8.5 million for fiscal year 2008, $11.5 million for fiscal year 2009, and $20 million for each of fiscal years 2010-2013. States would have to provide must matching funds over the program’s six years. KFTA would also establish a federal interagency task force to examine mental health issues in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. $1 million is authorized for each fiscal year 2008 through 2013 (60 percent for Health and Human Services, 20 percent for Juvenile Justice and 20 percent for Education). Ask your lawmakers to help end the crisis in children's mental health by co-sponsoring KFTA. Strong bipartisan support is needed to move the Keeping Families Together Act through the legislative process.
To contact members of Congress, go to congress.org and enter the name or the house and your state to find your lawmaker’s phone number. If you can’t phone and must use email, click on the link to the member’s own website and email through the link there (outside emails are often ignored!). The committee list here has links to the members’ own sites. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Democrats Republicans Independent
House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats Republicans |
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