Federal grants expand mental health care to rural and farming communities
H.R. 6817 — Home-Based Telemental Health Care Act of 2025 · Filed by Andrea Salinas (D-OR) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 17, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a federal grant program to fund telemental health services delivered to patients in their homes, targeting rural areas with mental health shortages and workers in farming, fishing, and forestry. Eligible nonprofits and public telemental health networks can receive up to $10 million per year (2025–2029) to expand remote mental health and substance-use care, improve broadband access, provide devices, and measure outcomes.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a grant program to expand telemental health services to underserved rural and agricultural populations. It is a straightforward public-health appropriation with no riders, carve-outs, or hidden provisions.
What the text implies
- Broadband expansion funded as a side effect of mental health grants may create spillover infrastructure benefits for rural communities beyond telehealth (education, commerce, telemedicine generally).
- Outcome measurement requirement (subsection c(2)) creates a data foundation for future policy on telemental health efficacy, potentially shifting reimbursement or coverage decisions.
- Inclusion of farming, fishing, and forestry workers (occupational definition via DOL Standard Occupational Classification) may capture gig workers and seasonal laborers often excluded from traditional employer-based mental health coverage.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Rural and agricultural workers face documented mental health service shortages; this bill directly funds expanded access to care in their homes via telemental health, removes infrastructure barriers (broadband, devices), and mandates outcome measurement. No restrictions on citizens' rights or remedies are imposed.
Who stands to gain
- nonprofit and public telemental health provider networks
- rural health systems and clinics
- broadband service providers (indirect, via infrastructure grants)
Named in the bill
Department of Health and Human Services (Secretary), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Office of Rural Health Policy, Department of Agriculture (Rural Health Liaison), Department of Labor (Standard Occupational Classification System)
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 1 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Dec 17, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Dec 17, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,603 characters) on May 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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