NOTEWORTHY

Bill Status: The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was introduced June 21 by a bipartisan group of senators led by Senators Cornyn and Tillis on the Republican side, and Senators Murphy and Sinema on the Democratic side. The Senate voted 64-34 June 21 to proceed to a House message that will serve as the shell for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. On June 21, Majority Leader Schumer filed cloture on the motion to concur in the House amendment to the shell, with the text of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act inserted as an amendment. The amendment tree has been filled. The Senate may vote as soon as Thursday on the cloture motion.

Overview of the Issue: Gun violence, in schools and elsewhere, is an issue Americans have grappled with at least since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. Legislators have worked to protect public safety without infringing on the Constitutional right all Americans have to bear arms.

In 2018, President Trump signed bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Cornyn and Murphy that strengthened the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The Fix NICS Act required federal agencies to upload relevant records to the NCIS system, incentivized states to upload records, and created a domestic abuse prevention initiative to ensure that states have adequate resources and incentives to share all relevant information with NICS showing that a felon or domestic abuser is excluded from purchasing firearms under current law.

The legislation proved that Republicans and Democrats could come together and pass sensible gun safety legislation that would protect people while not infringing on Second Amendment rights. After the recent tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Senators Cornyn and Murphy, along with 18 of their colleagues, came together to once again craft bipartisan legislation to improve public safety while ensuring that Second Amendment rights are protected.

Executive Summary of the Bill: The bill expands the existing Medicaid Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic demonstration program nationwide for behavioral health services. It also includes supplemental funding related to school-based mental health and safety, including mental health services, and funding for primary care training, the mental health block grant, and suicide prevention programs.  

The bill provides $750 million in funding over five years to states to support “crisis intervention services,” including the enactment of red flag laws. It clarifies criteria for prohibiting firearms purchases for crimes committed by juveniles. It establishes the first federal criminal offenses and penalties for “straw purchasers” – people who purchase guns on behalf of others, usually those who would be banned from purchasing a firearm such as violent criminals, drug dealers, and terrorists.

NOTABLE BILL PROVISIONS

Division A – Mental Health and Firearms Provisions

Title I – Children and Family Mental Health Services

Expands the existing Medicaid Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic demonstration program nationwide for behavioral health services. Ten additional states may opt into the demonstration every two years.

Requires the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide guidance to states on expanding access to telehealth for services covered under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Requires CMS also to provide guidance for training and resources for providers and best practices for offering mental health and substance use disorder services via telehealth.

Requires CMS to provide states with the resources necessary to expand school-based health programs for Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries. CMS would be required to issue guidance to states related to enrolling school health providers in Medicaid, telehealth utilization, and accessing community-based behavioral health providers for Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries in school-based settings. Authorizes $50 million in planning grants to states to expand assistance through school-based entities under Medicaid or CHIP, which is funded in Division B of this bill.

Requires CMS to review states’ implementation of the Medicaid Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment benefit every five years. CMS would be required to identify issues in state compliance and ways to address issues. CMS would also be required to provide states guidance on Medicaid coverage requirements for ensuring children have access to health care services, including mental health or substance use disorder diagnosis.

Reauthorizes the Pediatric Mental Health Care Access grant program for five years and expands teleconsultations into emergency departments and schools. The program helps train and assist pediatric primary care providers in diagnosing, treating, and referring children with mental health conditions.

Title II – Firearms

Requires background checks for firearms purchasers under 21 to include checks to determine if the person has a juvenile record that would prohibit them from purchasing a firearm.

Expands the time for the FBI to investigate cases of possible disqualification for purchasers under 21 from three to 10 business days. If the investigation has not concluded within 10 days, the transfer would go forward.

Requires people who repeatedly buy and sell firearms “to predominantly earn a profit” to register as “federal firearm licensees.”

Allows states to use Byrne JAG grant funds to implement “crisis intervention” programs. These can include mental health courts, drug courts, and “extreme risk protection order programs,” commonly known as red flag laws. Section 12003 requires state extreme risk protection order programs meet certain pre- and post- deprivation due process rights and standards.

Establishes the first ever federal criminal offenses and penalties for “straw purchasers” – people who purchase guns on behalf of others, usually those who would be banned from purchasing a firearm, such as violent criminals, drug dealers, and terrorists. Straw purchasers can receive up to 15 years imprisonment, and up to 25 years when straw-purchased weapons are used in the commission of a serious crime.

Prohibits firearm transfers to drug cartels to avoid another “Fast and Furious” debacle.

Provides FFL’s with access to NICS to run background checks on prospective employees, to ensure they are not prohibited from possessing firearms.

Defines “dating relationship” for purposes of clarifying which people may be prohibited from possessing a firearm under current law based on a domestic violence conviction as “a relationship between individuals who have or have recently had a continuing serious relationship of a romantic or intimate nature.” This provision is not retroactive.

Grants people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence automatic restoration of their right to possess a firearm after five years have passed from the end of their criminal sentence, providing they have committed no further crimes of violence.

Title III – Other Matters

Delays the implementation of the Medicare Rebate Rule for prescription drugs for one year.

Deposits offset funds from the one year delay of the Medicare Rebate Rule into the Medicare Improvement Fund.

Prohibits federal K-12 funding from being used for providing anyone with, or training anyone to use, a dangerous weapon.

Division B – Appropriations

Department of Justice

Provides $100 million to meet “additional resource needs” of NICS.

Provides $1.4 billion for Office of Justice Program grants.

Provides $750 million over five years for crisis intervention programs funded by Byrne JAG grants.

Provides $200 million for STOP School Violence grants.

Provides $200 million for states to upgrade their criminal and mental health records and upload records to NICS.

Provides $100 million for COPS program grants.

Department of Health and Human Services

Provides $250 million to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Community Mental Health Block Grant program.

Provides $40 million for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

Provides $150 million in one-time funding to implement the 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. 

Provides $240 million for SAMHSA’s Project AWARE, which helps school personnel in detecting and responding to mental health issues in children. Of this amount, $28 million is appropriated to improve trauma care in school settings.

Provides $120 million for Mental Health Awareness Training.

Provides $60 million for behavioral health training for primary care providers through the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Provides $80 million for pediatric primary care providers to access mental health training and services through HRSA.

Provides $50 million to CMS for Medicaid school-based programs and implementation grants to states as authorized in this bill.

Department of Education

Provides $1.05 billion for school improvement programs, consisting of:

1. $1 billion for Title IV-A student support and academic enrichment grants, to be available through fiscal year 2025. The funding is for grants to high-need school districts, as determined by states, for activities related to supporting safe and healthy students, including mental health, safety, and violence prevention.

2. $50 million, available through fiscal year 2023, for the 21st century community learning centers program, which supports educational programming for students outside of school hours. The bill also requires the secretary of education to increase support for using evidence-based practices that lead to more middle and high school students participating in community learning centers.

Provides $1 billion for safe schools and citizenship education programs, consisting of:

1. $500 million over five years for school-based mental health services grants, which are for states to use to increase and retain the number of qualified mental health professionals serving students in high-need schools.

2. $500 million over five years for mental health services professional demonstration grants. These competitive grants are for supporting partnerships between school districts and institutions of higher education that increase the availability of trained mental health professionals in schools. They allow for graduate students preparing for school-based mental health jobs to be placed in schools to finish required field work, internships, or similar training.

ADMINISTRATION POSITIONS

The administration has not yet released a SAP on the bill. President Biden tweeted at the introduction of the framework that preceded the legislation: “I want to thank Senator Chris Murphy and the bipartisan group for their gun safety proposal. It does not do everything that I think is needed, but it reflects important steps in the right direction.” 

COST

The CBO score for the legislation estimates the bill will reduce the deficit by $154 million over 10 years.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE BILL

Leader McConnell supports the legislation. He stated: “For years, the far left falsely claimed that Congress could only address the terrible issue of mass murders by trampling on law-abiding Americans’ constitutional rights. This bill proves that false. Our colleagues have put together a commonsense package of popular steps that will help make these horrifying incidents less likely while fully upholding the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.”

The CDC reports that each year one in five people experiences a mental health condition that is treatable. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on people’s mental health, with young people especially affected. The bill includes an expansion of the CCBHC model, as well as funding to support mental health services in schools, so that more people can access mental health care.

Republican Senators McConnell, Cornyn, Tillis, Blunt, Collins, Graham, Cassidy, Burr, Romney, Portman, Capito, Ernst, Murkowski, and Young voted to advance the legislation on June 21. Senator Toomey did not vote but released a statement indicating he supported the bill and urged all senators to support the legislation.

The National Sheriffs’ Association sent a letter June 22 to Leader Schumer and Leader McConnell expressing the group’s support of the legislation. The letter states: “Sheriffs see, up close, the daily carnage of gun violence carried out by criminals and individuals suffering from mental illness. We appreciate the authors coming together on a bill that can actually save lives, which is written in such a way that allows the States to craft their own unique answers to the questions raised by gun violence.”

The National Rifle Association opposes the bill.