Bill > HR2994

Introduced Session

Safer Communities Act of 2015 This bill provides grants to expand mental health crisis assistance programs, to support comprehensive school mental health programs, and to enhance mental health and substance abuse needs of prison inmates. The bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services to expand research on violence associated with mental illness and substance abuse disorders. It requires the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to expand the National Violent Death Reporting System to all 50 states and to research the causes, mechanisms, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of injuries from gun violence. The bill states that no provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act prohibits physicians from asking patients about guns in their homes, speaking to a patient about gun safety, or reporting a patient's threat of violence. It amends the Gun Control Act of 1968 to specify that the term "committed to a mental institution" applies to involuntary inpatient or outpatient treatment. The bill amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to permit the Department of Justice (DOJ) to award grants to states to remove firearms from individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others. DOJ must promptly notify law enforcement agencies when a prohibited person attempts to purchase a firearm. The bill replaces statutory references to persons "adjudicated as a mental defective" with persons "adjudicated as ineligible due to disqualifying mental status." It amends the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 to: establish procedures to restore firearm ownership rights after a mental health adjudication or commitment, require an annual report on record submissions due to domestic violence misdemeanor convictions, authorize state grants to improve the automation and transmittal of mental health and criminal history records, and require quarterly updates to federal agency record submissions. The bill reauthorizes the National Criminal History Records Improvement Program for FY2016-FY2019.

Committee Categories

Mike Thompson (D)*,  Don Beyer (D),  Earl Blumenauer (D),  Suzanne Bonamici (D),  Lois Capps (D),  Judy Chu (D),  Katherine Clark (D),  Steve Cohen (D),  Peter DeFazio (D),  Tammy Duckworth (D),  Donna Edwards (D),  Keith Ellison (D),  Eliot Engel (D),  Anna Eshoo (D),  Elizabeth Esty (D),  Chaka Fattah (D),  Raúl Grijalva (D),  Jim Himes (D),  Jared Huffman (D),  Bill Keating (D),  Barbara Lee (D),  Zoe Lofgren (D),  Alan Lowenthal (D),  Nita Lowey (D),  Stephen Lynch (D),  Doris Matsui (D),  Jim McGovern (D),  Seth Moulton (D),  Patrick Murphy (D),  Grace Napolitano (D),  Eleanor Holmes Norton (D),  Ed Perlmutter (D),  Mark Pocan (D),  Mike Quigley (D),  Charles Rangel (D),  Kathleen Rice (D),  Dutch Ruppersberger (D),  Albio Sires (D),  Louise Slaughter (D),  Eric Swalwell (D),  Mark Takano (D),  Niki Tsongas (D),  Chris Van Hollen (D),  Juan Vargas (D),  John Yarmuth (D), 

Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations. (on 07/29/2015)

Official Document