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The Mental Health Act of 1966

The Mental Health Act of 1966

Other short titles	The Kennedy Act, The JFK Bill
Long title	"An Act to Protect and Invest in Mental Health Programs in America"
Enacted by	the 89th United States Congress
Effective	January 10, 1966
Codification
Acts amended	Public Health Service Act
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as the "John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial Mental Healthcare Act for the Year 1965" by Ted Kennedy (D--MD) on November 23, 1965 Committee consideration by Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Passed the Senate on December 12, 1965 (141-35) Passed the House on January 2, 1966 (1,781-222) Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on January 10, 1966

The Mental Health Act of 1966, also colloquially known as the ‘Kennedy Act’ is a landmark federal legislation passed in the 89th United States Congress, and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on January 10, 1966. The law provided funding for multiple mental health programs that were created by the United States government as well as symbolically declaring mental health to be an ongoing crisis in the United States. Along with the Social Security Amendments of 1965, they represented the largest investments in healthcare taken by the federal government in the second half of the twentieth century.

The bill was proposed in response to the suicide of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, whose suicide was attributed to the trauma he suffered when his wife, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, was assassinated November 23, 1963, which resulted in Kennedy’s resignation a few months later. Kennedy’s suicide brought mental health and depression into the national spotlight and made the topic of mental health a major campaign and administration goal of President Johnson, who included the provisions in his ‘Great Society’ causes. Johnson said that the bill “…was the only way that our country could respond to [Kennedy’s] tragic demise”.

Kennedy’s brother and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy introduced the bill in the Senate, which has been retrospectively named as one of the most emotional speeches in political history, as the Senator broke down crying while introducing the bill, and being given a ten minute standing ovation and support by his fellow colleagues. The bill had multi-partisan support from almost all parties in Congress, though it faced sharp criticism from the Dixiecrat Coalition. Their criticism and action against this bill is noted as being one of the major factors in both the coalition’s losses in the 1968 elections and the coalition’s dissolving in 1973.