Senate passes gun safety legislation with Stabenow’s mental health program

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Washington — The gun safety legislation passed late Thursday by the U.S. Senate would expand eligibility for a mental health program authored by Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow to all states.

The vote was 65-33, with 15 Republican senators voting with Democrats in support of the package, which has been hailed as the most significant gun legislation in 30 years. The House is expected to take up the legislation as early as Friday.

Stabenow’s measure, co-written by Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, reimburses states through Medicaid for mental health and addiction services provided at federally qualified community health clinics that must offer 24-hour crisis services, among other elements.

Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Roy Blunt want to expand their pilot program funding mental health services in community health clinics.

“We know that more than half of all gun deaths are suicides and those with mental illness are more likely to be a victim of violence than perpetrate it,” Stabenow said in a statement after the vote.

“This bill builds on my transformational behavioral health care initiative to bring high-quality mental health and addiction services to communities across the country to get people the care they need as part of the health care system.”

The program started in 2016 with eight funded states, and two more were added in 2020, including Michigan. Those states will get four more years of participation in the program under the legislation passed Thursday, according to Stabenow’s office. The bill also provides $40 million in planning grants for states new to the program.

More than 435 clinics are part of the program around the country now, including individual clinics that can apply to join, Stabenow said this week. Anyone can go to one of the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics for care, whether they have insurance or not.

“Everybody always says, well, a big part of the (gun violence) problem here is the mental health delivery system’s not working,” Blunt told reporters this week.

“And so we were able to come back and say, Look, we’ve got examples of 10 states and 30 others where it’s not only working but they know it works. Let’s go ahead and expand.”

The Stabenow-Blunt measure is part of a broader Senate package negotiated in the wake of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas; Buffalo, New York; and the Nov. 30 shooting at Oxford High School in Oakland County that left four students dead.

The bill includes funding for antiviolence efforts, mental health centers in schools and support for suicide hotlines.

It also would strengthen background checks for gun purchasers younger than 21 and would make it easier to seize guns from people threatening to kill themselves or others in states that adopt such initiatives, as well as people who have committed domestic violence.

The bill also cracks down on gun trafficking, expands who needs to register as a federal firearms dealer; including so-called “straw purchases” when someone is buying a weapon for someone else.

“I’m in the camp that says it’s not enough” to address gun violence, Stabenow said Thursday on MSNBC. “But I believe this is the step we can do now. On the mental health side, it’s a humongous step.”

Stabenow introduced the Excellence in Mental Health Act with Blunt in 2013. The impetus was a desire to change the funding model for community-based mental health and addiction treatment so it would not be limited to grants that “start and stop” but as part of the health care system.

The program created federal criteria for participating clinics to meet high quality standards and offer services including 24-hour crisis psychiatric care, outpatient services, immediate screenings, risk assessments and integrated help to treat substance abuse.

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