I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4585 

To require the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

to conduct a national suicide prevention media campaign, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 1, 2019 

Mr. BEYER (for himself and Mr. GIANFORTE) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To require the Director of the Centers for Disease Control 

and Prevention to conduct a national suicide prevention 

media campaign, and for other purposes. 

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Campaign to Prevent 

5 Suicide Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE. 

7 Section 520E–3(b)(2) of the Public Health Service 

8 Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–36c(b)(2)) is amended by inserting 

9 after ‘‘suicide prevention hotline’’ the following: ‘‘, which, 


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1 beginning not later than one year after the date of the 

2 enactment of the Campaign to Prevent Suicide Act, shall 

3 be a 3-digit nationwide toll-free telephone number,’’. 

4 SEC. 3. NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MEDIA CAM5 PAIGN. 

6 (a) NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MEDIA CAM7 PAIGN.— 

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than the date that 

9 is three years after the date of the enactment of this 

10 Act, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control 

11 and Prevention (referred to in this section as the 

12 ‘‘Director’’), in coordination with the Assistant Sec13 retary for Mental Health and Substance Use (re14 ferred to in this section as the ‘‘Assistant Sec15 retary’’), shall conduct a national suicide prevention 

16 media campaign (referred to in this section as the 

17 ‘‘national media campaign’’), in accordance with the 

18 requirements of this section, for purposes of— 

19 (A) preventing suicide in the United 

20 States; 

21 (B) educating families, friends, and com22 munities on how to address suicide and suicidal 

23 thoughts, including when to encourage individ24 uals with suicidal risk to seek help; and 


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1 (C) increasing awareness of suicide preven2 tion resources of the Centers for Disease Con3 trol and Prevention and the Substance Abuse 

4 and Mental Health Services Administration (in5 cluding the suicide prevention hotline main6 tained under section 520E–3 of the Public 

7 Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–36c)), 

8 any suicide prevention mobile application of the 

9 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or 

10 the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services 

11 Administration, and other support resources de12 termined appropriate by the Director, in coordi13 nation with the Assistant Secretary. 

14 (2) ADDITIONAL COORDINATION.—In addition 

15 to coordinating with the Assistant Secretary under 

16 this section, the Director shall coordinate with State, 

17 local, Tribal, and territorial health departments, pri18 mary health care providers, hospitals with emer19 gency departments, mental and behavioral health 

20 services providers, crisis response services providers, 

21 first responders, suicide prevention and mental 

22 health professionals, patient advocacy groups, sur23 vivors of suicide attempts, and representatives of tel24 evision and social media platforms in planning the 


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1 national media campaign to be conducted under 

2 paragraph (1). 

3 (b) TARGET AUDIENCES.— 

4 (1) TAILORING ADVERTISEMENTS AND OTHER

5 COMMUNICATIONS.—In conducting the national 

6 media campaign under subsection (a)(1), the Direc7 tor, in coordination with the Assistant Secretary, 

8 may tailor culturally competent advertisements and 

9 other communications of the campaign across all 

10 available media for a target audience (such as a par11 ticular geographic location or demographic) across 

12 the lifespan. 

13 (2) TARGETING CERTAIN LOCAL AREAS.—The 

14 Director, in coordination with the Assistant Sec15 retary, shall, to the maximum extent practicable, use 

16 amounts made available under subsection (f) for 

17 media that targets individuals in local areas with 

18 higher suicide rates. 

19 (c) USE OF FUNDS.— 

20 (1) REQUIRED USES.— 

21 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Director, in coordi22 nation with the Assistant Secretary, shall use 

23 amounts made available under subsection (f) 

24 for the following, with respect to the national 

25 media campaign: 


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1 (i) The purchase of advertising time 

2 and space, including the strategic planning 

3 for, and accounting of, any such purchase. 

4 (ii) Creative services and talent costs. 

5 (iii) Advertising production costs. 

6 (iv) Testing and evaluation of adver7 tising. 

8 (v) Evaluation of the effectiveness of 

9 the national media campaign. 

10 (vi) Operational and management ex11 penses. 

12 (vii) The creation of an educational 

13 toolkit for television and social media plat14 forms to use in discussing suicide and rais15 ing awareness about how to prevent sui16 cide. 

17 (B) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS.— 

18 (i) TESTING AND EVALUATION OF AD19 VERTISING.—In testing and evaluating ad20 vertising under subparagraph (A)(iv), the 

21 Director, in coordination with the Assist22 ant Secretary, shall test all advertisements 

23 after use in the national media campaign 

24 to evaluate the extent to which such adver25 tisements have been effective in carrying 


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1 out the purposes of the national media 

2 campaign. 

3 (ii) EVALUATION OF EFFECTIVENESS

4 OF NATIONAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN.—In eval5 uating the effectiveness of the national 

6 media campaign under subparagraph 

7 (A)(v), the Director, in coordination with 

8 the Assistant Secretary, shall take into ac9 count— 

10 (I) the number of unique calls 

11 that are made to the suicide preven12 tion hotline maintained under section 

13 520E–3 of the Public Health Service 

14 Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–36c) and as15 sess whether there are any State and 

16 regional variations with respect to the 

17 capacity to answer such calls; 

18 (II) the number of unique en19 counters with suicide prevention and 

20 support resources of the Centers for 

21 Disease Control and Prevention and 

22 the Substance Abuse and Mental 

23 Health Services Administration and 

24 assess engagement with such suicide 

25 prevention and support resources; 


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1 (III) whether the national media 

2 campaign has contributed to increased 

3 awareness that suicidal individuals 

4 should be engaged, rather than ig5 nored; 

6 (IV) whether the national media 

7 campaign has contributed to any re8 duction in suicide rates, reduction in 

9 suicide attempts, reduction in suicidal 

10 ideation, and increase in self-outreach 

11 for support or outreach for supporting 

12 others; and 

13 (V) such other measures of eval14 uation as the Director, in coordination 

15 with the Assistant Secretary, deter16 mines are appropriate. 

17 (2) OPTIONAL USES.—The Director, in coordi18 nation with the Assistant Secretary, may use 

19 amounts made available under subsection (f) for the 

20 following, with respect to the national media cam21 paign: 

22 (A) Partnerships with professional and 

23 civic groups, community-based organizations, 

24 including faith-based organizations, and Gov25 ernment or Tribal organizations that the DirecVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:50 Oct 07, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4585.IH H4585

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1 tor determines have experience in suicide pre2 vention, including the Substance Abuse and 

3 Mental Health Services Administration. 

4 (B) Entertainment industry outreach, 

5 interactive outreach, media projects and activi6 ties, public information, news media outreach, 

7 outreach through television programs, and cor8 porate sponsorship and participation. 

9 (d) PROHIBITIONS.—None of the amounts made 

10 available under subsection (f) may be obligated or ex11 pended for any of the following: 

12 (1) To supplant current suicide prevention cam13 paigns. 

14 (2) To supplant pro bono public service time 

15 donated by national and local broadcasting networks 

16 for other public service campaigns. 

17 (3) For partisan political purposes, or to ex18 press advocacy in support of or to defeat any clearly 

19 identified candidate, clearly identified ballot initia20 tive, or clearly identified legislative or regulatory 

21 proposal. 

22 (4) To fund advertising that features any elect23 ed officials, persons seeking elected office, cabinet24 level officials, or other Federal officials employed 

25 pursuant to section 213.3301 or 213.3302 of title 5, 


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1 Code of Federal Regulations (or any successor regu2 lations). 

3 (5) To fund advertising that does not contain a 

4 message intended to prevent suicide or increase 

5 awareness of suicide prevention resources. 

6 (e) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—The Director, in coordi7 nation with the Assistant Secretary, shall, with respect to 

8 the first year of the national media campaign, submit to 

9 Congress a report that describes— 

10 (1) the strategy of the national media campaign 

11 and whether specific objectives of such campaign 

12 were accomplished, including whether such campaign 

13 impacted the number of calls made to lifeline crisis 

14 centers and the capacity of such centers to manage 

15 such calls; 

16 (2) steps taken to ensure that the national 

17 media campaign operates in an effective and effi18 cient manner consistent with the overall strategy 

19 and focus of the national media campaign; 

20 (3) plans to purchase advertising time and 

21 space; 

22 (4) policies and practices implemented to ensure 

23 that Federal funds are used responsibly to purchase 

24 advertising time and space and eliminate the poten25 tial for waste, fraud, and abuse; and 


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1 (5) all contracts entered into with a corpora2 tion, a partnership, or an individual working on be3 half of the national media campaign. 

4 (f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For pur5 poses of carrying out this section, there is authorized to 

6 be appropriated $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 

7 through 2024. 

Æ 


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