II 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2626 

To clarify the requirements for receiving certain grants through the National 

Mental Health and Substance Use Policy Laboratory. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 22, 2018 

Mr. YOUNG (for himself and Mr. CASSIDY) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, 

Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To clarify the requirements for receiving certain grants 

through the National Mental Health and Substance Use 

Policy Laboratory. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Testing, Evaluating, 

5 and Strengthening Treatments Act’’ or the ‘‘TEST Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. NATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE USE 

7 POLICY LABORATORY GRANT PROGRAM. 

8 Section 501A(e) of the Public Health Service Act (42 

9 U.S.C. 290aa–0(e)) is amended— 


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1 (1) in paragraph (1)— 

2 (A) in the matter preceding subparagraph 

3 (A)— 

4 (i) by striking ‘‘organizations to de5 velop’’ and inserting ‘‘or private organiza6 tions to create, develop, implement, rep7 licate, or take to scale promising’’; and 

8 (ii) by striking ‘‘for—’’ and inserting 

9 ‘‘to—’’; 

10 (B) by striking subparagraphs (A) and (B) 

11 and inserting the following: 

12 ‘‘(A) enhance the prevention, diagnosis, 

13 intervention, and treatment of, and recovery 

14 from, mental illness, serious emotional disturb15 ances, substance use disorders, and co-occur16 ring illness or disorders; or 

17 ‘‘(B) integrate or coordinate physical 

18 health services and mental and substance use 

19 disorder services.’’; 

20 (2) by redesignating paragraphs (2) and (3) as 

21 paragraphs (4) and (7), respectively; 

22 (3) by inserting after paragraph (1) the fol23 lowing: 

24 ‘‘(2) DESCRIPTION OF GRANTS.—The grants 

25 described in paragraph (1) shall include— 


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1 ‘‘(A) early-phase grants to fund the devel2 opment, implementation, and feasibility testing 

3 of an intervention, which prior research sug4 gests has promise; 

5 ‘‘(B) mid-phase grants to fund implemen6 tation and a rigorous evaluation of an interven7 tion that has been successfully implemented 

8 under an early-phase grant described in sub9 paragraph (A) or other effort meeting similar 

10 criteria, for the purpose of measuring the inter11 vention’s impact on important outcomes, such 

12 as addiction and mental illness, as well as its 

13 cost effectiveness, if feasible, using existing ad14 ministrative data; and 

15 ‘‘(C) expansion grants to fund implementa16 tion and a rigorous replication evaluation of an 

17 intervention that has been found to produce 

18 statistically significant, sizable, and important 

19 impacts under a mid-phase grant described in 

20 subparagraph (B) or other effort meeting simi21 lar criteria, for the purposes of— 

22 ‘‘(i) determining whether such impacts 

23 can be successfully reproduced and sus24 tained over time; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) identifying the conditions under 

2 which the intervention is most effective. 

3 ‘‘(3) CRITERIA.—In awarding grants under this 

4 subsection, the Assistant Secretary shall employ 

5 broad eligibility criteria regarding the content or ap6 proach of the proposed interventions, and use the 

7 promise of the prior research or evidence as the 

8 main factor in selecting interventions for award.’’; 

9 (4) by inserting after paragraph (4), as so re10 designated, the following: 

11 ‘‘(5) EVALUATION.—Each recipient of a mid12 phase grant described in paragraph (2)(B) or an ex13 pansion grant described in paragraph (2)(C) shall 

14 conduct a rigorous, third-party evaluation that em15 ploys experimental designs using random assign16 ment, when feasible, and other research methodolo17 gies that allow for the strongest possible causal in18 ferences when random assignment is not feasible, to 

19 determine the effectiveness of the intervention car20 ried out under such grant. 

21 ‘‘(6) MATCHING FUNDS.—In order to receive a 

22 grant under this subsection, an eligible entity shall 

23 demonstrate that the eligible entity will provide 

24 matching funds, in cash or through in-kind contribu25 tions, from Federal, State, local, or private sources 


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1 in an amount equal to 10 percent of the funds pro2 vided under such grant, except that the Assistant 

3 Secretary may waive the matching funds require4 ment, on a case-by-case basis, upon a showing of ex5 ceptional circumstances, such as— 

6 ‘‘(A) difficulty of raising matching funds 

7 for a program to serve a rural area; or 

8 ‘‘(B) difficulty of raising funds on tribal 

9 land.’’; and 

10 (5) in paragraph (7), as so redesignated, by 

11 striking ‘‘There are authorized to be appropriated— 

12 ’’ and all that follows through the period at the end 

13 and inserting ‘‘To carry out this section, there are 

14 authorized to be appropriated $14,000,000 for the 

15 period of fiscal years 2018 through 2022.’’. 

Æ 


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