On January 30, 2024, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Todd Young (R-IN) and U.S. Representatives Jen Kiggans (R-VA-2), Susan Wild (D-PA-7), Buddy Carter (R-GA-1), and Debbie Dingell (D-MI-6) introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to reauthorize the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, a comprehensive law Senators Kaine and Young and Rep. Wild successfully pushed to pass to reduce and prevent suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among health care professionals.

The law has already provided $100 million in funding for mental health care for providers across the country, including $5.6 million in federal funding for Virginia providers at UVA Health, Virginia Commonwealth University, and George Mason University, but provisions of the law that made this funding possible are set to expire at the end of this year. The Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act would reauthorize these grant programs for five years.