Behind bipartisan support, the Excellence in Mental Health bill is scheduled to be introduced to Congress sometime in February or March of 2014, the Washington Times reported. It proposes expanded mental health care benefits and stricter regulations for facilities across the country.

Written by Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the bill amends the Public Health Service Act and promises to "set forth criteria for the certification of federally-qualified community behavioral health centers," according to congress.gov. Basically, they'll be expected to update their facilities and will be aided by "award matching grants" provided to states and Indian tribes. Within and around those criteria, centers must apply for recertification at least every five years.

Mental health care will also be more broadly covered by Medicaid, giving an expanded number of citizens access to a field known for demanding private fees and rejecting health insurance.

Last week, the bill passed the Senate Finance Committee ("a huge step," according to Al Jazeera's Frank Matt), which estimated its total cost at $1.6 billion over ten years, the Washington Times reported.

"We need to be treating the diseases above the neck the same we do those below the neck," Stabenow said.

The Newtown shooting, among other random killings involving mentally handicapped perpetrators, was one of the driving forces behind Stabenow and Blunt's bill, according to the Washington Times.

"Acts of violence [are] one of the things that's brought us to look at this as a Senate and as a country again," Blunt said. "We see over and over again in tragedy after tragedy, one absolute common thread is a behavioral health issue that hasn't been dealt with."

Given the inevitable, back-and-forth battle between the House and the Senate when the bill is officially introduced, a celebrity endorsement by Glenn Close ("Fatal Attraction," "Dangerous Liasons," "101 Dalmations") probably won't hurt its chances.

"Our family had no vocabulary for mental illness," Close told MSNBC of her personal struggle with mental illness. "It's incredible to me that it's still so, so difficult for people to talk about it," she said, "and so our passion is to make mental illness as easy to talk about as diabetes or cancer so that it's part of the human condition and it's something that should unite us rather than something that we need to whisper about behind closed doors or feel fearful and ashamed. But the truth is the stigma is huge, still."