To amend Public Health Service Act to require community health centers to provide behavioral and mental health and substance use disorder services, and for other purposes.

Key Points

• This bill would make behavioral health, mental health, and substance use disorder services a required part of what community health centers offer. Currently these services are optional, but this change would elevate them to the same level as basic medical care.
• The bill provides $700 million per year for five years (fiscal years 2027 through 2031), totaling $3.5 billion, to help community health centers hire staff and build out the capacity to deliver these new required services.
• The bill amends the Public Health Service Act, which governs how community health centers operate. By adding mental health and addiction care to the list of required primary health services, centers that receive federal funding would need to provide these services to keep their grants.
• The funding mechanism comes through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's Community Health Center Fund, a dedicated stream Congress already uses to support these centers. This bill adds a new line item specifically for behavioral and mental health expansion.