The Biden administration released its fiscal year 2025 budget, which includes $7.3 trillion in spending. In the budget proposal, Biden maintains his promise to focus on expanding and reforming the nation’s mental health system. Biden noted the need to ensure access to mental health care amid an unprecedented national mental health crisis that affects people of all ages. Biden also noted his intention to invest in training more mental health professionals and expand certified community behavioral health clinics across the country.
The FY 2025 Budget calls for granting the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) a total of $13.9 billion in discretionary budget authority for FY 2025, a 2.3% increase from the FY 2023 Budget. DOL is responsible for enforcing the law regarding mental health coverage for employer-sponsored private health plans. These plans cover more than 150 million people nationwide. The amount requested for DOL in the FY 2025 Budget is less than what the Biden Administration requested in the FY 2022, 2023, and 2024 Budgets.
Nevertheless, Biden is seeking a budget increase for the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) in 2025. EBSA is the part of the Department of Labor that directly enforces the mental health insurance law against private health insurers. The increase would come from both discretionary funding, which would be about a 7.6% increase over the fiscal year 2023 budget, and mandatory spending of $275 million over the next 10 years to enforce the Mental Health Parity Act. However, Congress must separately approve the mandatory spending portion of the budget. Biden has requested this mandatory spending every year after 2023, but so far Congress has ignored his requests.
The Biden Administration has also requested a $130.7 billion discretionary budget for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2025, a 1.7% increase from the 2023 budget. HHS also has the significant responsibility of transforming mental health care policy and access in the country.
Finally, Biden reiterated his earlier request for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide $125 million in mandatory funding to be used in grants to states over the next 10 years. These grants would enable states to enforce mental health parity requirements.
