WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representatives Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) sent a letter with their colleagues to House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Chair DeLauro and Ranking Member Granger requesting $100 million be included in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 appropriations bill for the creation and expansion of alternative crisis response teams. Representative Adam Smith released the following statement after the letter was transmitted.

“Encouraging the use of behavioral health professionals to respond to mental health crisis situations improves the quality of crisis response and strengthens public safety by providing long term solutions to mental health and substance use issues,” the members wrote.

“The overwhelming majority of 911 calls involve mental health and substance use incidents, neighbor disputes, nuisance complaints, and requests for wellness checks that require appropriately trained, unarmed behavioral health professionals. Both the police and policing reform advocates often assert that specialized service providers—such as social workers, paramedics, and peer support counselors—are better equipped to handle such situations than armed officers,” wrote the members. “For some local governments, however, establishing and growing crisis response teams is cost prohibitive given the resources it takes to cover training, personnel, and equipment. Additional federal funding could go a long way in offsetting costs and spurring growth of these programs across the country.”

“Existing 911 response limited to police, fire, or EMT services have been overwhelmed and simply do not meet the needs of the communities they serve. A focus on a holistic public safety approach centered on the needs of communities is long overdue,” the members concluded.

A full copy of the letter can be found here.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.) today issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced the distribution of more than $20 billion for Fiscal Year 2022 to strengthen public transit across the country, including over $379 million for Washington State, representing the largest investment in public transit in our country’s history.

“Thanks to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Washington State will receive $369,533,187 in funding to distribute to local public transit agencies across the state to repair, modernize, and expand our public transit network – a major win for Washingtonians. This funding will help connect communities throughout the region and make it easier for people to get where they need to go.

“As the Puget Sound Region continues to experience explosive growth, this funding will be especially important to expanding public transit to every corner of our state, so that all members of our community have access to safe, reliable, and convenient transportation.

“This funding will also allow our state to invest in clean energy technology to power our public transit network, an important step in combatting the climate crisis. Public transit agencies will now have additional resources at their disposal to assemble electric and zero-emissions fleets that will reduce pollution and help to decarbonize the transportation sector to make our communities and our planet healthier.

“I am proud to see the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law deliver major investments like this to states across the country and I commend President Biden and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for taking action to advance the strength and resiliency of our communities.”

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