Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Title: Safer Communities Act of 2015
Subject: Administrative law and regulatory procedures: Administrative remedies: Assault and harassment offenses: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Child health: Correctional facilities and imprisonment: Criminal justice information and records: Department of Health and Human Services: Domestic violence and child abuse: Drug, alcohol, tobacco use: Education programs funding: Elementary and secondary education: Evidence and witnesses: Firearms and explosives: Government information and archives: Health information and medical records: Health personnel: Health programs administration and funding: Health promotion and preventive care: Intergovernmental relations: Juvenile crime and gang violence: Law enforcement administration and funding: Law enforcement officers: Medical research: Medical tests and diagnostic methods: Mental health: Performance measurement: Right of privacy: Specialized courts: State and local government operations: Teaching, teachers, curricula: Veterans' medical care: Violent crime: Crime victims: Product safety and quality: Research administration and funding: Crime and law enforcement
Description: 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.
Session: 114th Congress
Last Action: Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations.
Last Action Date: July 29, 2015
Link: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2994/all-info
Note: the first sponsor listed is normally the primary sponsor. If a sponsor's name is a hyperlink you can click on it to 'follow the money'.
45 sponsors: Mike Thompson (D); Ed Perlmutter (D); Niki Tsongas (D); Chaka Fattah (D); Elizabeth Esty (D); John Yarmuth (D); James Himes (D); Eric Swalwell (D); Eleanor Norton (D); Chris Van Hollen (D); Grace Napolitano (D); Katherine Clark (D); Earl Blumenauer (D); Keith Ellison (D); Doris Matsui (D); Donna Edwards (D); Mike Quigley (D); Barbara Lee (D); Lois Capps (D); Steve Cohen (D); Raul Grijalva (D); Judy Chu (D); James McGovern (D); Mark Pocan (D); Charles Rangel (D); Kathleen Rice (D); Zoe Lofgren (D); Don Beyer (D); Peter DeFazio (D); Suzanne Bonamici (D); Seth Moulton (D); Eliot Engel (D); Jared Huffman (D); William Keating (D); Albio Sires (D); Mark Takano (D); C.A. Ruppersberger (D); Anna Eshoo (D); Nita Lowey (D); Alan Lowenthal (D); Tammy Duckworth (D); Stephen Lynch (D); Louise Slaughter (D); Juan Vargas (D); Patrick Murphy (D)
Chamber | Date | Action |
House | Jul 29 2015 | Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations. |
House | Jul 10 2015 | Referred to the Subcommittee on Health. |
House | Jul 9 2015 | Introduced in House |
House | Jul 9 2015 | Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned. |
House | Jul 9 2015 | Referred to House Judiciary |
House | Jul 9 2015 | Referred to House Energy and Commerce |
Type | Date | Federal Link | Text |
Introduced | Jul 14 2015 | federal bill text | bill text |
Title | Description | Date | State Link | Text | Adopted |
There are no amendments to this bill at this time |
Chamber: H
Committee Name: Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, And Investigations
There have not been any votes on this bill