Marking the one-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook school massacre, the White House will announce a $100 million initiative Tuesday to increase access to mental-health services.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden will meet at the White House with families who lost relatives in the shooting in Newtown, Conn., a White House official said. Mental-health advocates also will attend the meeting.
The funding will come from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture. HHS will spend $50 million to help community health centers establish or expand behavior health services for people with mental illness or addiction.
The Agriculture Department will spend up to $50 million to build or expand mental-health facilities in rural areas over the next three years.
The shooter in Newtown, Adam Lanza, was said to have mental-health issues. But authorities haven’t established a motive for why he killed 20 children, six adult educators, his mother and himself.
The Obama administration pushed for tighter gun-control measures after the shooting, but Congress rejected the legislation last spring.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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