I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2028 

To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through 

the Administration for Children & Families, to award grants on a competitive basis to public and private entities to provide exclusively education in sexual risk avoidance (meaning avoiding all sexual risk by 

voluntarily refraining from nonmarital sexual activity). 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 6, 2017 

Mr. HULTGREN (for himself, Mr. LAHOOD, Mr. BANKS of Indiana, Mr. ADERHOLT, Mrs. HARTZLER, Mr. JODY B. HICE of Georgia, and Mr. BABIN) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, 

acting through the Administration for Children & Families, to award grants on a competitive basis to public 

and private entities to provide exclusively education in 

sexual risk avoidance (meaning avoiding all sexual risk 

by voluntarily refraining from nonmarital sexual activity). 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Healthy Relationships 

3 Act of 2017’’. 

4 SEC. 2. SEXUAL RISK AVOIDANCE EDUCATION. 

5 (a) GRANTS.—The Secretary of Health and Human 

6 Services, acting through the Administration for Children 

7 & Families (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’), 

8 may award grants on a competitive basis to public and 

9 private entities for the exclusive purpose of providing 

10 qualified sexual risk avoidance (in this section referred to 

11 as ‘‘SRA’’) education to youth and their parents. 

12 (b) QUALIFIED SRA EDUCATION.—To receive fund13 ing for SRA education under this section, an entity shall 

14 demonstrate to the Secretary each of the following: 

15 (1) The education— 

16 (A) will be evidenced-based, meaning it will 

17 have a clear theoretical framework integrating 

18 research findings with practical implementation 

19 relevant to the SRA field that matches the 

20 needs and desired outcomes for the intended 

21 audience; and 

22 (B) if effectively implemented, will give 

23 youth improved life and health outcomes. 

24 (2) The unambiguous and primary emphasis 

25 and context for each topic covered by the education 

26 will be the message to middle and high school stuVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:07 Apr 14, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2028.IH H2028

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1 dents that avoiding nonmarital sexual activity offers 

2 the best opportunity for optimal sexual health. 

3 (3) The education will be medically accurate, 

4 meaning that information will be referenced to peer 

5 reviewed publications by educational, scientific, gov6 ernmental, or health organizations. 

7 (4) The education will be age-appropriate, 

8 meaning it will be appropriate for the general devel9 opmental and social maturity of the targeted age 

10 group (as opposed to the cognitive ability to under11 stand a topic, or the atypical maturation, of a small 

12 segment of the targeted population). 

13 (5) The education will thoroughly address each 

14 of the following: 

15 (A) The holistic individual and societal 

16 benefits associated with personal responsibility, 

17 self-regulation, goal setting, healthy decision18 making, and a focus on the future. 

19 (B) The research-supported advantage of 

20 reserving sexual activity for marriage, in order 

21 to improve the future prospects and physical 

22 and emotional health of youth, and helping sex23 ually active students return to a risk-free sta24 tus. In this subparagraph, the terms ‘‘sexual 

25 activity’’ and ‘‘sexually active’’ refer to any type 


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1 of genital contact or sexual stimulation for the 

2 purpose of arousal, including sexual intercourse. 

3 (C) The increased likelihood of avoiding 

4 poverty when youth implement the ‘‘success se5 quence’’ by achieving three norms in sequence: 

6 complete school, secure a full time job, and wait 

7 until at least 21 years of age to marry and have 

8 children. 

9 (D) The skills needed to resist the harms 

10 associated with pornography and the pervasive, 

11 sex-saturated culture that portrays teenage sex12 ual activity as an expected norm, with few risks 

13 or negative consequences. 

14 (E) The foundational components of 

15 healthy relationships and their impact on the 

16 formation of healthy marriages and safe and 

17 stable families. 

18 (F) How to resist and avoid sexual coer19 cion and dating violence, recognizing that even 

20 with consent, teen sex remains a youth risk be21 havior. 

22 (G) How other youth risk behaviors, such 

23 as drug and alcohol usage, increase the risk for 

24 teen sex. 


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1 (6) The education will ensure that any informa2 tion provided on contraception— 

3 (A) is medically accurate and ensures that 

4 students understand that contraception offers 

5 only physical risk reduction and not risk elimi6 nation; and 

7 (B) does not include demonstration, sim8 ulation, or distribution of contraceptive devices. 

9 (c) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants under subsection 

10 (a), the Secretary shall give priority to applicants pro11 posing programs to provide qualified SRA education that 

12 will— 

13 (1) regularly reinforce the SRA message in both 

14 the middle and high school grades; and 

15 (2) promote parent-child communication re16 garding the benefits of avoiding all sexual risk. 

17 (d) APPLICATION.—To seek an application under this 

18 section, an entity shall submit an application at such time, 

19 in such manner, and containing such assurances as the 

20 Secretary may require. At a minimum, the application 

21 shall include— 

22 (1) assurances satisfactory to the Secretary 

23 that each of the conditions listed in subsection (c) 

24 will be satisfied; 


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1 (2) an individualized plan to evaluate the SRA 

2 education to be funded through the grant for behav3 ioral impact, or to inform best practices in the provi4 sion of such SRA education that are based on re5 search that— 

6 (A) is conducted by independent research7 ers who have experience in conducting and pub8 lishing research in peer-reviewed outlets; and 

9 (B) is not part of a national evaluation 

10 that is mandated by, contracted for, or con11 ducted by the Department of Health and 

12 Human Services; and 

13 (3) an agreement to expend not more than 20 

14 percent of their overall grant award for such evalua15 tion. 

16 (e) TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 

17 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may provide 

18 training and technical assistance to grantees under 

19 this section. 

20 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—Any such training and 

21 technical assistance shall— 

22 (A) emphasize the practical implementa23 tion of SRA in all educational messaging to 

24 teens; 


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1 (B) be provided directly to grantees by 

2 SRA-credentialed experts; 

3 (C) cover methodologies and best practices 

4 in SRA for teens; and 

5 (D) consistently teach in the context of a 

6 public health model that stresses risk avoidance 

7 or a return to a risk avoidance status. 

8 (3) SETTINGS.—Any such training and tech9 nical assistance shall be provided during national 

10 and regional conferences, webinars, and one-on-one 

11 conversations about funded projects. 

12 (4) QUALIFIED ORGANIZATIONS.—In addition 

13 to training and technical assistance provided by staff 

14 of the Department of Health and Human Services, 

15 such training and technical assistance shall be pro16 vided by qualified organizations that have— 

17 (A) sole focus on the development and ad18 vancement of SRA education; 

19 (B) expertise in theory-based SRA pro20 gram development and implementation; 

21 (C) direct experience in developing SRA 

22 evaluation instruments; and 

23 (D) the ability to offer technical assistance 

24 and training on topics relevant to the SRA 

25 field. 


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1 (f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

2 (1) IN GENERAL.—To carry out this section, 

3 there is authorized to be appropriated $100,000,000 

4 for each of fiscal years 2018 through 2022. 

5 Amounts authorized to be appropriated by the pre6 ceding sentence shall be derived exclusively from 

7 amounts made available for the Teen Pregnancy 

8 Prevention program of the Department of Health 

9 and Human Services. 

10 (2) FEDERAL ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Of the 

11 amount authorized to be appropriated by paragraph 

12 (1) for a fiscal year— 

13 (A) up to $1,000,000 are authorized to be 

14 used for the creation of a national media cam15 paign to increase understanding and apprecia16 tion for SRA education; 

17 (B) not more than $1,000,000 are author18 ized to be used for Federal administrative costs; 

19 and 

20 (C) of the amount used by the Secretary 

21 for administrative costs, no more than 25 per22 cent shall be used for training and technical as23 sistance. 

Æ 


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