Capitol Hill is depressed about mental health.
Senate insiders are telling The Hill that a mental health bill that was approved by the House likely won't get through the Senate before this year's session ends.
Despite bipartisan consensus on the central provisions of the bill, the legislation is likely to die in the upper chamber because of an attempt by some Republicans to add language on gun policy that Democrats vehemently oppose.
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Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has proposed language that would raise the legal standard necessary to bar a person from purchasing a firearm. Under his proposal, a hearing in front of a judge would be necessary to bar somebody from owning a gun because of mental illness.
Republicans who crafted the bill framed the bill specifically as a response to mass shootings. The recent spate of killings thus make the bill's apparent failure particularly poignant.
Many health advocates and Democrats reject the argument that the bill will necessarily prevent mass shootings, but have embraced the legislation because they say that the country's mental health system desperately needs a boost.
"(T)he reason to do mental health reform is to reform the mental health system and to help people with a set of serious illnesses to recover and be healthy and to thrive," Mental Health America's CEO Paul Gionfriddo told NBC News. "If you're doing it for the reason that you think violence in America is going to disappear … or even mass violence in America is going to disappear, you're just going to be disappointed."
The bill would create a secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services devoted to mental health and substance abuse who would try to more closely coordinate state and local mental health care programs throughout the country. It would also come with funding in the form of grants to local mental health programs.
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