Behavioral Health Matters to Counties

Two bipartisan bills aimed at addressing the Medicaid Inmate Exclusion Policy (MIEP) were recently reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

On April 9, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee marked up the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2025. The bipartisan bill aims to reauthorize critical programs that target overdose prevention amid the renewal of the opioid crisis Public Health Emergency declaration.

As of April 7, there have been 70 confirmed cases of bird flu in the United States, but no person-to-person spread has been detected. 

On April 4, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced it will not allocate $750 million this year for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program. According to the press release, FEMA will also stop funding BRIC projects that were previously approved and are still underway.

A Riverside County, Calif. supervisor took experiences from his former life as a teacher to help create a program that serves students who had gone the juvenile justice system and were looking for a second chance.

On March 25, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent letters to state authorities and counties with direct grant funding announcing the immediate termination of several pandemic-related grants, which was previously set to run through September 2025.