WASHINGTON -- The urgency of Friday's vote -- one of the last of his House career -- wasn't lost on veteran U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad.
After he and others had spent more than 12 years trying to get a federal law requiring insurers to cover mental health in the same way as physical health, the measure was going before the House again, this time as part of the massive, controversial financial rescue bill.
A week earlier, the House and Senate had passed similar versions of the mental health parity bill but still had final details to work out. With Congress' full attention on the $700 billion financial rescue package to shore up ailing credit markets, it looked as though the long-stalled bill -- named after the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, who had championed the mental health cause -- might fall by the wayside yet again.
"The financial stabilization package was the last bill Congress was going to pass before leaving town, which made attaching this life-saving legislation our only hope to make it a reality," Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said Friday.
After the House rejected the financial package Monday, Senate leaders tried to gain more support for it by adding the mental health measure, along with billions of dollars in tax cuts, alternative energy incentives and other sweeteners. Detractors criticized the package for including a bundle of earmarks, including for such interests as wooden arrow manufacturers, motor sport racing facilities and film producers.
On Friday, two days after the Senate passed the revised version, the House took it up and approved it, including the mental health provisions. The vote was 263-171, and President Bush signed the bill later in the day.
Ramstad, a Republican who had voted against the initial financial rescue bill on Monday, was the only Minnesota House delegate to change his vote on Friday.
He acknowledged that the mental health measure was an important factor but said it wasn't the only reason for his change; relief on the alternative minimum tax and an increase in federal bank deposit insurance that were part of the new package also played a large role. Besides, he said, "there was just too much at stake to let the legislation fail."
Ramstad, an 18-year House member who is retiring at the end of this term, has said he wanted to see mental health legislation become law before he retired.
"For all practical purposes this was my last vote," he said Friday. "It's ironic that it also, to me, is one of the most important votes I've ever cast in 28 years of public service."
For David Wellstone, the late senator's son, the day brought a happy end to five years of working to fulfill his father's legacy, an effort that included bi-weekly flights from California to Washington to lobby for the bill.
"It's been such a long journey and my dad got close so many times, right to the cusp," he said. "But I just didn't know until all the votes were counted."
"This bill is a major achievement, one I know my dad would be proud of," he said.
Mitch Anderson • 202-408-2723
