Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for c…
Creates the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Behavioral and Mental Health Workforce Scholarship Program at HRSA to fund tuition and reasonable educational expenses for students training for specified behavioral health roles. Recipients must serve one year in covered employment for each scholarship year in mental-health shortage areas, high-overdose counties, or other shortage-designated sites; the bill authorizes $75 million per year for FY2026–2030, allows liquidated damages for breach and a replacement fund for recovered amounts, and excludes these scholarships from gross income under the Internal Revenue Code.
Liberal emphasizes equity, workforce expansion, and underserved placements
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill establishes a substantive federal scholarship program with substantial specificity in eligibility, contractual obligations, funding authorization, and integration with existing law, but provides limited problem articulation, startup timelines, oversight metrics, and detailed treatment of numerous operational edge cases.
Creates the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Behavioral and Mental Health Workforce Scholarship Program at HRSA to fund tuition and reasonable educational expenses for students training for specified behavioral health roles.
Recipients must serve one year in covered employment for each scholarship year in mental-health shortage areas, high-overdose counties, or other shortage-designated sites; the bill authorizes $75 million per year for FY2026–2030, allows liquidated damages for breach and a replacement fund for recovered amounts, and excludes these scholarships from gross income under the Internal Revenue Code.
Modest-cost, administrable workforce program with bipartisan appeal improves prospects, but requires appropriation and Senate clearance.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill establishes a substantive federal scholarship program with substantial specificity in eligibility, contractual obligations, funding authorization, and integration with existing law, but provides limited problem articulation, startup timelines, oversight metrics, and detailed treatment of numerous operational edge cases.
Liberal emphasizes equity, workforce expansion, and underserved placements
These are examples from the analysis, not a ranked list of the most-affected groups.
Liberal emphasizes equity, workforce expansion, and underserved placements
Generally supportive: increases training pipeline for substance use and behavioral health providers in underserved, high-overdose areas.
Views program priorities for underrepresented groups as positive but will watch funding adequacy and service-support details.
Cautiously supportive: sees it as a targeted, evidence-driven workforce development tool addressing clear shortages.
Wants clearer budgeting, measurable outcomes, and reasonable enforcement to avoid unintended costs.
Skeptical: reluctant to expand federal spending and programs.
May acknowledge workforce gaps, but opposes ongoing appropriations, new federal obligations, and broad administrative authority without offsets or strong accountability.
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Still ahead
Still ahead
Still ahead
Modest-cost, administrable workforce program with bipartisan appeal improves prospects, but requires appropriation and Senate clearance.
The bill has not accumulated any surfaced votes yet.
Liberal emphasizes equity, workforce expansion, and underserved placements
Modest-cost, administrable workforce program with bipartisan appeal improves prospects, but requires appropriation and Senate clearance.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill establishes a substantive federal scholarship program with substantial specificity in eligibility, contractual obligations, funding authorization, and integration wit…
Go beyond the headline summary with full stakeholder mapping, legislative design analysis, passage barriers, and lens-by-lens tradeoff breakdowns.