Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

By John E. Mulligan
Journal Washington bureau

WASHINGTON -- President Bush today told the sponsors of a landmark mental health bill -- including Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy -- that the new law will merit commemoration in the presidential library that he will fill when he leaves the White House.

Mr. Bush held a private ceremony to sign the legislation in the Oval Office this afternoon as Democratic father-son duo from Rhode Island and Massachusetts looked on with the chief Republican sponsors of the legislation, Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico and Rep. Jim Ramstad of Minnesota.

Rather than sign the measure with the customary handful of pens to be dispensed to his guests as mementos, Mr. Bush explained that he was purposely affixing his signature to the bill with a single pen.

"This is going to be one of my most historic bills,'' the younger Kennedy quoted the president as saying. "This pen is going to go into my presidential library.''

Congressman Kennedy said he was moved by the president's "very gracious'' gestures and remarks during the ceremonial signing of the mental health bill, which actually became law on Oct. 3 -- as a last-minute amendment to the $700-billion rescue bill for the nation's financial system.

He said Mr. Bush's quiet celebration with the lawmakers underlined "the significance of this piece of legislation as the historic civil rights bill that it is.''

"This means that 113 million Americans will now have access to equitable treatment for mental illness,'' Ramstad said after the White House ceremony.

The measure's potential beneficiaries will include alcoholics and drug addicts as well as the mentally ill. That's a point of pride for Patrick Kennedy, who has made the legislation a top personal priority during the two-and-a-half years since an automobile accident prompted him to seek treatment for his abuse of prescription medicine and alcohol. Kennedy has also been treated for bipolar illness.

Ramstad, a recovering alcoholic of more than 25 years' standing, has become Kennedy's close friend and informal counselor. Together, they campaigned in congressional hearings across the country for the legislation, which would put health insurance for mental illness on a par with coverage of physical illness.

On the Senate side, the lead sponsors have been Senator Kennedy -- Patrick's father and a longtime leader on health care issues -- and Domenici, whose wife, Nancy Domenici, was on hand today in the Oval Office. One of their grown children suffers from schizophrenia.

Ramstad and Patrick Kennedy described the event as an intimate and friendly affair, with touching moments as well as humorous ones. They said Mr. Bush made a point of drawing attention to the focal point in the room, the wooden desk upon which he signed the mental health parity bill.

"This is the most famous desk that any president ever used,'' he told his guests, "primarily because your brother, your uncle, was behind the desk when John-John crawled out.''

 Tags  bill signing Edward Kennedy mental health parity Oval Office Patrick Kennedy President Bush

---