WASHINGTON, July 5 -- For nearly four months, Tom Kean Jr. missed 140 roll call votes and gave his constituents no explanation. On Tuesday, standing on the House floor, the New Jersey Republican gave them one. "I was given the diagnosis of depression," he said, in remarks Axios reported ended one of the longest unexplained absences by a sitting member of Congress.

Kean returned to Congress the same week he introduced the Mental Health Parity Enforcement and Funding Act, legislation that would let the labor secretary enforce federal mental health parity requirements through civil penalties and would direct $30 million a year through 2031 to the Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration to carry out that enforcement. The...