Republican Rep. Mike Lawler said he’s working to get members of his party to join him in pushing for the Trump administration to restore services for LGBTQ+ youth on the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
“Regardless of what your viewpoint is with respect to, for instance, gender-affirming care, the fact is we should all be united against suicide,” Lawler told NOTUS on Thursday, explaining what he has been telling his Republican colleagues. “We should want to provide the resources and lifelines to anyone who is in crisis.”
The Trump administration in June announced its plans to cease providing specific support to LGBTQ+ youth on the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which runs the hotline, framed the decision as a change from siloing LGBTQ+ services to “focus on serving all help seekers.”
While Republicans have largely cheered President Donald Trump’s policies on LGBTQ+ people, Lawler and fellow Republican Rep. Young Kim spoke out against the hotline decision at the time. They wrote in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “We cannot leave our children without critical mental health care.”
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On Thursday, Lawler joined with Democrats for a press conference calling on the Trump administration to restore hotline services aimed specifically at LGBTQ+ youth.
He told NOTUS afterward that he’s raised his concerns with House Republican leadership regarding the 988 line’s LGBTQ+ services being cut.
Lawler said that House GOP leadership told him “they understand” his concerns, and he and other House members will work to get funding for the 988 line’s LGBTQ+ services restored when the House appropriates new government spending after the current package expires in September.
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Some Democrats said they were hopeful that they could work with more Republicans on funding mental health services for LGBTQ+ youth. Rep. Seth Moulton told NOTUS that he and his colleagues “are trying to grow the ranks here.”
“It’s important that Mike Lawler is on this effort because we need to gain more Republican support,” Moulton said. “I think he has more leverage than the average Republican. He doesn’t just have political leverage, he has moral leverage because a lot of other Republicans know this is the right thing to do.”
Fellow Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko sounded more skeptical that Republicans would ultimately challenge Trump’s policy on the suicide hotline, although he said it’s still important to speak out.
“When all is said and done, I see the efforts here, the scenario ending with bending the knee to the president,” Tonko said, predicting that Republicans might not ultimately challenge Trump’s policy.
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