After deadly school shootings, many Republican officials try to shift the public conversation away from gun violence and toward mental health programs that might make mass shootings less likely. After the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, this led to a breakthrough of sorts.
The Biden-era law known as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act included stricter background checks for gun purchases, making the law the most significant gun legislation in decades. But just as notably, the same federal law included significant investments in improving mental health support for students — a priority that enjoyed surprisingly bipartisan support on Capitol Hill.
Three years later, however, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration has decided to block $1 billion in grants for student mental health programs.
The Trump administration has halted $1 billion for mental health services for children, saying that the programs funded by a bipartisan law aimed at stemming gun violence in schools were no longer in ‘the best interest of the federal government.’ … [J]ust as some of the mental health programs are starting, the Education Department canceled the funding this week and informed grant recipients that they would have to reapply for the money because of potential violations of federal civil rights law.
There is no reason to believe the grants are at odds with civil rights laws, though as the Times’ report added, a spokesperson for the Department of Education confirmed that the grants had been discontinued “because of a particular focus on increasing the diversity of psychologists, counselors and other mental health workers.”
Asked why in the world he did this, Donald Trump pointed to the grants as an apparent example of “waste, fraud and abuse” (which didn’t make any sense) before adding that the programs were being used by undocumented migrants — which, like so many of the president’s claims, is unsupported by evidence.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who helped write the law, told the Times, “I’m raw about this because I sat in the room for a long time negotiating a really delicate compromise on a really tough issue. What’s the point of being in Congress and writing laws if the president can just ignore them? So, I’m angry that my Republican partners are not out there raising objections to what the president is doing.” It is possible that the administration may reverse course on this. After all, in recent months, the White House has retreated under pressure, and if there’s enough of a backlash on cutting mental health services for children, officials might yet restore the funding. For now, however, those looking for a persuasive defense for cutting these grants will be looking for a very long time.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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