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From YouTube: Bipartisan Safer Communities Act Briefing
Description
On June 25, President Biden signed the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” into law. This new law is the first piece of federal legislation in decades to address the issue of gun violence in the United States and contains provisions addressing access to mental health resources in schools and the greater community, background checks, illegal firearms trafficking, and grants to support these programs. NCSL provided a briefing for our members to learn about the nuts and bolts of this new law and how it impacts states.
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act Summary:
• https://www.ncsl.org/Portals/1/Documents/standcomm/sclcjps/Senate-Gun-Legislation-June-2022.pdf
School Safety: Overview and Legislative Tracking:
• https://www.ncsl.org/research/education/school-safety.aspx
School Safety: Prevention:
• https://www.ncsl.org/research/education/school-safety-prevention636876490.aspx
A
B
Thanks,
susan
and
good
afternoon,
everybody
I'm
going
to
start
off
with
the
first
section
of
the
bill
which
pertains
to
medicaid
programs
and
adjustments
that
have
been
made
to
the
program
that
relate
to
increasing
mental
health
services
in
states
and
particularly
schools.
Typically,
this
is
not
an
area
I
cover,
but
we
have
a
new
health
and
human
services
director
that
it
just
started
today.
B
So
we
are
sparing
her
this
presentation
on
her
first
day
of
work,
so
I
will
do
my
best
to
to
outline
some
of
the
changes
to
medicaid
and
particularly
the
changes
to
school-based
medicaid
that
were
provided
through
this
bill.
So
the
first
section,
like
I
said,
did
introduce
some
changes
to
the
medicaid
program
to
increase
access
to
mental
health
services
through
medicaid.
One
of
the
provisions
in
particular
says
that
the
center
for
medicare
and
medicaid
services
must
issue
guidance
to
states
on
providing
telehealth
services,
and
particularly
in
in
the
as
it
pertains
to
schools.
B
That
also
includes
providing
mental
health
and
substance
abuse
services,
substance
abuse,
disorder,
services
to
schools
via
telehealth
services.
Some
other
provisions
just
related
to
the
medicare
program,
there's
also
some
direction
for
the
expansion
of
the
community
mental
health
services
demonstration
program.
That's
something
that
up
to
10
states
can
opt
into
at
any
time.
So
these
changes
to
the
medicare
changes
to
the
medicaid
program
more
broadly,
but
there
were
a
number
of
significant
changes
to
the
school-based
medicaid
program
which
have
some
impact
on
school
safety
and
and
student
mental
health.
B
So,
by
way
of
background,
medicaid
funding
in
schools
is
actually
the
third
largest
source
of
federal
funding
in
schools.
That's
behind
esea
title
one
and
an
idea
funding
it's
about
somewhere
around
five
billion
dollars
a
year.
It's
something
that
not
every
school
participates
in.
In
fact,
there's
kind
of
two
ways
that
schools
can
participate
states
can
provide
medicaid
services
through
schools
for
helping
students
to
manage
their
ieps
through
ida,
but
beyond
that
states
can
choose
to
provide
medicaid
services
for
any
medicaid
eligible
student
that
might
go
into
that
that
school.
B
So,
for
example,
as
it
kind
of
relates
to
school
safety,
a
district
could
be
reimbursed
by
medicaid
if
they
happen
to
hold
a
meeting
with
school
staff.
That
might
you
know,
determine
a
mental
health
evaluation
for
for
a
student
or
send
them
to
a
mental
health
specialist.
So
that's
just
one
of
the
examples
in
ways
in
which
a
school
could
take
advantage
of
this
to
provide
mental
health
services
and
school
participation
rates
in
the
medicaid
and
schools
program,
kind
of
varies
between
states.
It
also
varies
within
states.
B
B
But
particularly,
I
think,
within
with
an
emphasis
on
on
student.
Mental
health
is,
is
some
particular
expansions
to
the
school-based
medicaid
program,
and
so
there's.
A
few
noted
changes
that
occurred
here
so
first
cms
is,
is
has
been
asked
to
issue
guidance
that
helps
states
clarify
the
steps
that
they
can
take
or
help
states
help
schools
take
steps
to
bill
for
any
early
and
periodic
screening
diagnostic
treatment
service.
They
may
provide
there's
also
a
provision
beyond
that.
That
requires
cms
to
regularly
review
state's
implementation
of
this
screening.
B
That's
for
the
medicaid
program
generally,
but
there's
also
going
to
be
some
additional
guidance
for
that
particular
screening
that
take
when
it
takes
place
in
a
school
setting.
That
guidance
is
also
going
to
include
strategies
and
tools
that
can
help
schools
deal
with
administrative
burdens
and
simplify
billing
processes,
and
that
will
help
schools
and
there's
also
going
to
be,
in
addition
to
this
guidance,
there's
some
resources
to
help
states
implement
this
guidance,
there's
to
be
a
new
technical
assistance
center
through
cms.
B
That
will
help
states
make
sure
that
they're
helping
schools
build
correctly
and
dealing
with
all
the
the
different
intricacies
of
the
medicaid
program,
there's
also
an
additional
50
million
dollars,
which
will
go
out
to
states
to
help
them
sort
of
take
advantage
of
this
guidance
and
take
advantage
of
the
technical
assistance
so
kind
of
the
goal.
Here.
B
As
I
understand
it,
is
it's
to
to
make
school
participation
in
the
medicaid
program,
more
streamlined
and
simple,
and
I
think
the
goal
there
is
to
provide
more
mental
health
supports
through
the
medicaid
program,
which
I
think
congress
intends
to.
You
know
have
that
make
schools
safer
places
and
provide
students
with
additional
mental
health
services.
So
that's
the
first
part
of
the
bill.
B
Some
changes
to
the
medicaid
program
that
you
know
apply
more
broadly,
but
also
in
in
the
sense
of
endorsing
and
promoting
school
safety,
provides
additional
mental
health
supports
to
students
in
schools.
So
that's
the
first
part
of
the
bill.
I
want
to
send
it
over
back
to
susan
for
the
second
portion
of
the
bill
and
and
the
justice
provisions.
A
Thanks
austin
so
title
two
of
this
bill
deals
with
juvenile
issues,
juvenile
justice
and
this
law
includes
background
checks
for
gun
purchasers
under
the
age
of
21..
Juvenile
records,
including
those
pertaining
to
mental
health,
adjudications
are
included
in
the
background
check,
so
some
of
the
things
that
are
different
or
that
will
poten
pertain
to
juveniles
and
young
adults.
A
A
A
The
department
of
justice
will
need
to
provide
some
guidance
on
how
these
provisions
will
be
implemented.
The
scuttlebutt
around
town
these
days
is
that
doj
will
move
quickly
on
guidance,
for
example.
One
question
that
we
know
they
will
need
to
answer
is
whether
a
sealed,
as
well
as
an
unsealed
record,
can
be
used
in
background
checks,
and
that
will
be
something
that
doj
will
have
to
determine.
And
this
these
guidance
requirements
or
or
provisions
will
come
through
the
bureau
of
justice
assistance
bja
and
then
you
know
again.
A
A
Other
provisions
that
aren't
juvenile
related
establish
new
laws
pertaining
to
straw,
purchasers
of
firearms
and
firearms
traffickers,
so
straw
purchasers
now
face
enhanced
penalties
of
up
to
25
years
imprisonment.
When
a
straw
purchased
firearm
is
used
in
connection
with
serious
criminal
activity
such
as
terrorism
or
drug
trafficking,
firearms
traffickers
face
an
enhanced
penalty
of
up
to
15
years
imprisonment.
A
Investigators
now
have
additional
wiretap
forfeiture,
racketeering,
charging
and
criminal
fines
authority,
which
are
all
detailed
in
the
statute.
Federal
law
is
also
expanded
to
include
the
crime
of
smuggling
firearms
out
of
the
united
states.
Previous
law
only
applied
to
criminalized
smuggling
firearms
into
the
united
states,
so
now
entering
and
exiting
with
firearms
is
now
criminal
activity.
The
law
also
contains
domestic
violence
provisions
and
closes
to
the
best
that
they
could,
what's
known
as
the
boyfriend
loophole.
A
Federal
law
now
defines
a
misdemeanor
crime
of
domestic
violence
as
including
individuals
who
have
or
have
had
a
current
or
recent
continuing
serious
relationship
of
a
romantic
or
an
intimate
nature
with
their
victim.
Previously,
this
definition
only
applied
to
spouses
of
p
or
people
with
a
child
in
common.
So
now
that
definition
has
been
expanded
to
include
non-marital
relationships.
A
A
A
One
piece
of
information
or
legisl
provision
that
is
not
contained
in
the
legislation,
except
as
an
option
for
states
to
spend
appropriated
dollars,
is
colloquially
the
red
flag
laws
or
the
extreme
risk
protection
orders
antiguan
tracks
that
information
for
ncsl
and
she
tells
me
there
are
19
states,
plus
the
district
of
columbia
that
currently
have
urpos,
in
effect,
whether
there
will
be
more
states
that
choose
to
use
their
appropriated
dollars
to
do.
This
remains
to
be
seen,
but
it
is
not
a
mandated
provision
in
the
text
of
the
law
itself.
A
There
was
differences
of
opinion
on
whether
that
should
be
included
or
not.
So.
Turning
now
to
appropriations,
the
there
are
also
quite
a
number
of
them
contained
in
this
law
in
both
the
justice,
education,
health
and
human
services
areas.
All
of
these
areas
have
received
appropriations
and
for
all
these
grants,
the
law
establishes
a
new
federal
clearinghouse
on
school
safety
and
evidence-based
practices.
A
B
A
A
A
The
attorney
general
is
also
required
to
publish
an
annual
report
on
the
grants
awarded
for
the
state
crisis,
intervention
programs
and
it
is
broken
down
by
grant
recipient.
The
report
from
the
ag
must
evaluate
the
effectiveness
of
all
of
the
programs
and
discuss
the
measures
taken
to
ensure
that
the
constitutional
rights
of
individuals
involved
in
crisis.
Intervention
programs
are
protected.
A
The
term
itself
crisis
intervention
will
be
broadly
written,
as
I
understand
it.
For
example,
it
could
be
interpreted
to
to
include
training
in
threat
assessments
for
court
personnel
by
a
trained
medical
doctor
or
other
professional
other
grant
awards.
You
can
see
there
on
the
on
the
screen:
300
million
for
stop
school
violence,
school
safety
programs,
250
million
for
community
violence,
intervention
programs,
the
fbi,
one
is
one-time
deal
for
fbi
agents,
so
that
is
essentially
the
justice
program
funding
and
now
I'll
turn
to
the
next
slide.
Here.
A
B
Thanks
susan
there's
also
some
appropriations
to
this
bill
for
department
of
education
grant
programs.
All
these
programs
are
our
existing
programs
that
are
currently
in
operation.
The
funding
will
be
available
through
march
1st
of
next
year.
The
biggest
part
of
funding-
that's
that's
getting
an
increase
is
the
what's
called
the
student
support
and
academic
enrichment
grants.
It's
the
title.
Four
funding
under
the
elementary
and
secondary
education
act,
that's
funded
on
an
annual
basis.
It's
about.
B
I
think
it's
been
recently
getting
about
1.4
billion
dollars
a
year,
so
this
bill
would
add
an
additional
1
billion
dollars
for
this
year
and
how
those
funds
work
as
they
flow
through
states
to
to
local
school
districts
and
the
school
districts
in
typical
times
have
have
to
allocate
their
funding
across
three
different
programmatic
areas.
This
funding
would
all
go
to
one
of
those
programmatic
areas,
which
is
the
safe
and
healthy
students
program.
B
Essentially,
what
that
does
is
that
school
districts
select
from
a
large
list
of
allowable
activities
that
relate
to
school
safety
and
student
mental
health.
These
are
all
locally
determined
program,
so
among
those
programs
could
be
drug
and
violence,
prevention,
programs,
school-based
mental
health
services,
bullying
and
harassment,
prevention,
programs,
re-entry
and
transition
programs
for
justice-involved,
youth
mentoring
and
school
counseling.
School-Wide
positive
behavioral
intervention
supports,
as
well
as
training
for
school
personnel
and
trauma
informed
practices.
B
So
I
think
this
is
considered
a
small
investment
in
in
another
way
to
address
student
mental
health,
then
there's
a
500
million
dollars
each
for
two
recently
created
school
health
programs.
These
were
created,
I
believe,
in
2019,
by
the
trump
administration
they've
each
received
one
round
of
funding.
I
believe
this
is
the
second
round
of
funding
they
will
receive
that
first
grant
is
the
school-based
mental
health
services
grant
it's
going
to
receive
500
billion
dollars?
B
Essentially
that
will
be
competitive
grants
to
states
with
the
goal
of
increasing
the
number
of
qualified
mental
health
service
providers
or
reducing
turnover
within
that
field.
I
think
the
last
time
that
a
grant
program
for
this
was
operated
at
least
the
only
time
it
was
operated
with
27
states
received
awards.
B
The
department
of
education
will
have
to
put
out
a
notice-inviting
applications
for
for
this
process.
I
would
expect
that
to
happen
fairly
soon,
but
I
don't
have
any
updates
on
the
implementation
of
that
program.
Similarly,
the
department
will
also
have
to
put
on
an
nia
on
the
school-based
mental
health
professionals,
demonstration
grant,
which
is
basically
an
investment
in
improving
the
pipeline
of
mental
health
professionals,
and
this
grant
program
supports
partnerships,
typically
between
institutions
of
higher
education
and
school
districts.
To
prepare
school-based
mental
health
service
providers
for
employment
in
high
needs
schools.
B
A
If
there's
any
areas
you'd
like
us
to
address
with
any
of
the
agencies
involved,
we
know
that
there's
been
a
lot
of
state
activity
prior
to
this
becoming
law
on
little
pieces
of
this.
You
know
issue
this
bigger
issue
of
school
safety
and
gun
violence,
but
if
there's
anything
that
you've
heard
today
that
you'd,
like
further
clarification
on
you
know,
this
is
that
this
is
your
chance
to
fire
away
and
we'd
be
happy
to
take
it
back
to
the
federal
folks
who
are
working
on
this.
C
B
Great
question
one:
I
was
thinking
about
that
that
I
thought
might
be
asked
and
it's
no
surprise
that
you're,
the
one
asking
it
I
don't
have
an
answer
on
that.
I
can
certainly
follow
my
expectation
just
because
this
is
emergency
funding.
I
would
presume
that
they
would
try
to
use
existing.
You
know
grants
management
systems
to
send
this
out,
so
I
wouldn't
anticipate
that
there
would
be
you
know
additional.
You
know,
processes
for
doing
this
and
they
try
to
send
this
out
their
regular
order,
but
that's
speculation.
C
B
We
have
some
resources.
I
can
gather
those
maybe
quickly
and
put
them
in
the
chat
or
I
can
follow
up
with
with
you
directly.
We
do
have.
We've
had
a
number
of
different
resources
that
we
put
together
after
a
number
of
the
the
different
tragedies
that
have
occurred
in
schools
over
over
the
years
in
a
circuit
sessions
at
our
conferences
and
other
gatherings
at
that,
so
there's
been
a
stream
of
materials
and
and
that's
run
through
our
state
staff
on
the
education
side.
B
But
I
know
we
have
those
so
I'll,
try
to
gather
those
while
we're
here.
If
not,
I
can.
I
can
send
those
later,
but
I,
if
you
you
know,
for
anyone-
that's
listening,
you
probably
just
type
in
school
safety
and
ncsl
into
google,
and
that
should
get
you
there.
But
I
will
try
to
pull
those
up
really
quickly.
A
Well,
I
see
one
question
in
the
chat
here
related
to
extreme
risk
protection
orders.
Does
the
bill
restrict
the
standard
of
proof?
States
can
use
for
these
or
allow
grant
funding
only
to
states
with
a
high
standard
of
proof
for
purpose,
and
my
my
response
to
that
is:
there's
no
restriction
on
the
standard
of
proof.
It
just
has
to
be.
A
I
guess
such
that
due
process
is
met.
There
are
specific
provisions
for
due
process
that
are
contained
in
the
law.
It's
a
lengthy
and
extensive
list.
So
I
urge
you
to
take
a
look
at
that
grant.
Funding
will
come
through
your
burn,
jag
formula
grant
so,
and
it's
and
using
it
to
establish
an
irpo
system
or
requirement
would
be
through
that
funding.
So
there's
nothing
that
says
that
funding
would
be
contingent
on
meeting
certain
standards.
B
I
see
a
question
in
the
chat
about
funds
going
through
the
department
of
education.
I
I
would
think
that
the
funds
would
be
available
to
be
obligated
through
march
1st
of
2023,
but
then
there's
usually,
and
this
will
be
specified
in
depends
on
which
of
the
programs
you
specified
in
the
grant
application.
The
spending
timeline
that
states
have.
B
The
states
and
schools
have
to
spend
those
funds,
but,
as
I
would
understand
it,
the
funds
would
go
out
and
districts
once
they
received
them
would
have
until
march
1st
to
think
about
how
they
want
to
spend
them.
And
then,
after
that
march,
1st
deadline
would
have
a
period
of
time
in
which
they
would
draw
down
those
funds
for
whatever
expenditures
they
had
chosen.
A
Yeah,
I
would
agree
with
that.
I
think
I
think
that's
up
to
the
agency.
My
my
guess
is
that,
if
they're
using
existing
funding
streams
that
are
already
in
place,
at
least
for
the
justice
grants,
many
of
those
are
formula
grant
fund
funds,
and
so
I
don't
think
they're
creating
at
least
on
the
doj
side,
any
new
funding
mechanisms
or
funding
streams.
So
I
think
the
you
know
once
the
money
is
there,
it
can
come
out.
It
can
go
out
pretty
quickly
if
it's
just
going
to
go
through
the
established
formula.
D
And
and
susan
I
was
just
going
to
mention
that
I
am
the
contact
for
extreme
risk
protection
orders.
I
also
I
am
working
on
an
update
right
now
to
my
long
memo,
but
I'm
I'm
kind
of
balancing
waiting
until
there's
more
federal
guidance.
So
you
know
there
may
be.
I
may
be
updating
the
information
as
I
get
it
or
I
may
just
decide
to
use
the
language
in
the
bill
I
haven't
decided
yet
so,
if
either
of
you
guys,
if
anyone
has
any
preference,
please
let
me
know.
A
Any
other
questions
feel
free
to
email
us
most
of
you
know
how
to
get
in
touch
with
at
least
one
of
us
on
this
briefing.
So
if
you
think
of
things
later
on,
you
know,
let
us
know,
because
we
want
to
have
that
direct
communication
with
you.
We
also
want
to
be
able
to
bring
forward
your
questions
and
concerns
to
the
relevant
agencies
to
make
sure
that
whatever
guidance
is
going
to
come
out
makes
a
lot
makes
sense
at
the
state
level.
A
I
really
do.
Thank
you.
We
all
thank
you
all
for
tuning
in
to
this
briefing.
We
have
again
the
links
in
the
chat
to
the
summary
and
the
bill
text,
which
has
the
bill
number
and
the
passage
votes,
and
all
of
that
you
can
see
all
of
that
there
and,
as
we
move
forward
in
this
process,
we'll
be
sure
and
keep
you
updated,
and
you
know
we'll
we'll
we'll
hope
that
everything
works
out
for
the
best
in
terms
of
state
implementation.