Gun Bill Offers Bipartisan Chance to Fund Mental Health Centers

Two senators have been trying for almost a decade to get support for spending billions of dollars on clinics specially designed to help people struggling with mental health problems and addiction. Now, their efforts are bearing fruit as the chamber prepares to vote on gun-control legislation.

Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) say they’ve been pitching colleagues for years on the need to send federal money to health clinics and alleviate the burden of mental health crisis care from ill-equipped police forces and emergency rooms. The clinics, the pair say, would fill the gap in care left when ...