House Appropriations Advances CPB, HHS Suicide Hotline Funding Increases

The proposed $565 million for CPB is more than 7% above what Congress allocated to the entity in FY 2024 as part of the FY 2022 omnibus appropriations package and is in line with what America’s Public Television Stations sought earlier this year (see 2202280068). House Appropriations allocated $32.5 million for the Department of Education’s Ready to Learn (RTL) program, a more than 6% increase from FY22. The measure includes $60 million for public broadcasting interconnection maintenance and upgrades.

APTS CEO Patrick Butler hailed the CPB funding increase and other funding affecting public broadcasters. That includes $40 million the committee allocated last week to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for public broadcasters to upgrade next-generation warning system infrastructure. “These investments in public broadcasting are critical to local public television stations’ public service missions of education, public safety and civil leadership, and to ensuring that everyone, everywhere, every day has access to these essential services for free,” Butler said Thursday: The RTL funding increase “will enable public television to enhance the successful national-local partnership that produces the high-quality programming and services that have been so important to families for decades.”

House Appropriations allocated almost $747 million for HHS’ 988 program, a 600% increase from FY22. The committee’s report on the LHHS bill notes the money will also fund “crisis response infrastructure for the new 988 number,” which is to roll out July 16. Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., cited the 988 funding increase at the start of the markup session. “The 988 Program has the potential to make it simpler for people experiencing a mental health crisis to connect with lifesaving crisis intervention services,” Appropriations said in the bill report. “This funding will support the NSPL infrastructure including national back-up services; expand local call center and crisis capacity across the continuum of care” and “promote ongoing Federal direction and leadership through coordination, standards setting, technical assistance and evaluation.”

The report urged HHS to give the committee a briefing on 988’s implementation, “including an operating plan outlining how” the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration “intends to allocate funding across” the program’s activities. House Appropriations “directs that as SAMHSA continues to enhance” the hotline’s infrastructure, “it should expand existing capabilities for response in a manner that, to the extent possible, utilizes existing phone, chat, and text capabilities.” The panel noted it allocated $30 million of the 988 funding for SAMHSA to continue providing “specialized services for LGBTQI+ youth” within the program.

House Appropriations adopted an amendment from Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., that adds language to the committee report urging HHS “to use every tool at its disposal to ensure that medication abortion care is accessible, affordable, covered, and convenient for patients including through access to telehealth.” Lee said the amendment is needed because 19 states bar prescribing abortion-inducing medications via telehealth. “There is no medical or scientific reason for these bans,” she said: “They are purely political.” LHHS ranking member Tom Cole, R-Okla., opposed the amendment because of concerns that patients wouldn’t be adequately evaluated for the medication via telehealth.

Meanwhile, New Jersey's 988 bill passed the legislature. The Senate voted 39-0 Wednesday to concur with the Assembly, which the same day amended S-311 by voice and passed the bill 77-0. The Assembly changes would give crisis hotline centers more leeway on a provision that would give them responsibility for ascertaining if a 988 caller has children. S-311 would require a report on whether a monthly fee on phone bills is necessary (see 2206170042).