mr. chairman , my amendment is straightforward : `` none of the funds made available in this a may be used to create or implement any universal mental health screening program. '' this does not deny any funds for any testing of those individuals who may show signs of mental illness . 
it only denies funding for any universal , read by many as mandatory , which is a bit of overkill as far as i am concerned . 
there is $ 26 million in this bill for these programs . 
eight states have already been involved , and three more have applied for grants . 
the main reason why i oppose this is i think there is a lot of overtreatment of young people with psychotropic drugs . 
this has been going on for a lot of years , and there are a lot of bad results , and once we talk about universal testing of everybody , and there is no age limit , matter of fact , in the recommendation by the new freedom commission , there is a tendency for overdiagnosis and overuse of medication . 
there are as many complications from overuse of medication as there is with prophylactic treatment . 
there is no evidence now on the books to show that the use of this medication actually in children reduces suicide . 
matter of fact , there are studies that do suggest exactly the opposite . 
children on psychotropic drugs may well be even more likely to commit suicide . 
it does not mean that no child ever qualifies for this , but to assume there is this epidemic out here that we have to test everybody is rather frightening to me . 
matter of fact , when the state gets control of children , they tend to overuse medications like this . 
take , for instance , in texas , 60 percent of the foster children are on medication . 
in massachusetts , it is close to 65 percent . 
in florida , 55 percent of the children in foster home care are receiving these kinds of medication . 
once again , i want to make the point that this does not deny funding for individual children who show signs that they may need or they have a problem and need to be tested . 
it is just to make sure that this is not universal and not be mandatory and that parental rights are guarded against and that the parent is very much involved . 
mr. chairman , i reserve the balance of my time . 
