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[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 923 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 923

To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through 
the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, 
 to award grants on a competitive basis to public and private entities 
to provide qualified sexual risk avoidance education to youth and their 
                                parents.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 14, 2015

    Mr. Graham (for himself, Mr. Vitter, Mr. Thune, Mr. Scott, Mr. 
Sessions, and Mr. Coats) introduced the following bill; which was read 
 twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
                                Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through 
the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, 
 to award grants on a competitive basis to public and private entities 
to provide qualified sexual risk avoidance education to youth and their 
                                parents.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Healthy Relationships Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. SEXUAL RISK AVOIDANCE EDUCATION.

    Part P of title III of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 
280g et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 399V-6. SEXUAL RISK AVOIDANCE EDUCATION.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary, acting through the Administrator 
of the Health Resources and Services Administration, may award grants 
on a competitive basis to public and private entities to provide 
qualified sexual risk avoidance education to youth and their parents.
    ``(b) Qualified Sexual Risk Avoidance Education.--To be eligible to 
receive a grant under subsection (a), an entity shall submit an 
application to the Secretary describing a sexual risk avoidance 
education program that the entity would offer and that meets all of the 
following requirements:
            ``(1) The primary emphasis and context for each topic 
        covered through the program shall be the unambiguous message 
        that postponing sexual activity is the optimal sexual health 
        behavior for youth.
            ``(2) The education shall be medically accurate.
            ``(3) The education shall use an evidence-based approach.
            ``(4) The education shall be age appropriate.
            ``(5) The education shall include thorough treatment of 
        each of the following topics:
                    ``(A) The holistic individual and societal benefits 
                associated with personal responsibility, success 
                sequencing, self-regulation, goal-setting, healthy 
                decisionmaking, and a focus on the future.
                    ``(B) The research-based advantage of reserving 
                sexual activity for marriage, as associated with 
                poverty prevention and optimal physical and emotional 
                health for all youth, regardless of previous sexual 
                experience.
                    ``(C) The skills needed to resist the pervasive 
                sex-saturated culture that portrays teenage sexual 
                activity as an expected norm, with few risks or 
                negative consequences.
                    ``(D) The foundational components of healthy 
                relationships and their impact on the formation of 
                healthy marriages and safe and stable families.
                    ``(E) How to avoid sexual coercion, dating 
                violence, and risk behaviors, such as drugs, alcohol, 
                and the misuse of social media.
            ``(6) The education shall ensure that any information 
        provided on contraception emphasizes the superior health 
        benefits of sexual delay and does not exaggerate the 
        effectiveness of contraception in preventing the physical and 
        non-physical consequences of teen sexual activity.
    ``(c) Priority.--In awarding grants under subsection (a), the 
Secretary shall give priority to applicants proposing programs to 
provide qualified sexual risk avoidance education that--
            ``(1) serves youth throughout the middle and high school 
        grades; and
            ``(2) will promote parent-child communication regarding 
        healthy sexual decisionmaking.
    ``(d) Definitions.--In this Act:
            ``(1) The term `age appropriate' means appropriate for the 
        general developmental and social maturity of the age group, as 
        opposed to appropriate to the cognitive ability to understand a 
        topic or the atypical development of a small segment of the 
        targeted population.
            ``(2) The term `evidence-based approach' means an approach 
        that--
                    ``(A) has a clear theoretical framework integrating 
                research findings with practical implementation 
                relevant to the field;
                    ``(B) matches the needs and desired outcomes for 
                the intended audience; and
                    ``(C) if effectively implemented, will demonstrate 
                improved outcomes for the targeted population.
            ``(3) The term `medically accurate' means referenced to 
        peer-reviewed research by medical, educational, scientific, 
        governmental, or public health publications, organizations, or 
        agencies.
            ``(4) The term `sexual risk avoidance' means voluntarily 
        refraining from sexual activity.
            ``(5) The term `sexual activity' means genital contact or 
        sexual stimulation for the purpose of arousal, including sexual 
        intercourse.
            ``(6) The term `success sequencing' means the progression 
        of youth through a series of behavioral benchmarks that 
        increases the youth's chances of avoiding poverty, in the 
        following sequence: completing school, securing a job, and 
        marrying before bearing children.
    ``(e) Authorization of Appropriations.--
            ``(1) In general.--There is authorized to be appropriated 
        $110,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2016 through 2020 to 
        carry out this section. Amounts authorized to be appropriated 
        by the preceding sentence shall be derived exclusively from 
        amounts in the Prevention and Public Health Fund established by 
        section 4002 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 
        (42 U.S.C. 300u-11).
            ``(2) Federal administrative costs.--Of the amounts 
        appropriated under paragraph (1) for a fiscal year--
                    ``(A) not more than $1,000,000 may be used for 
                Federal administrative costs; and
                    ``(B) of the amount used by the Secretary for 
                administrative costs, at least 40 percent shall be used 
                for training and technical assistance by qualified 
                organizations--
                            ``(i) whose sole focus is the development 
                        and advancement of sexual risk avoidance;
                            ``(ii) have expertise in theory-based 
                        sexual risk avoidance curriculum development 
                        and implementation;
                            ``(iii) have direct experience in 
                        developing sexual risk avoidance evaluation 
                        instruments; and
                            ``(iv) can offer technical assistance and 
                        training on a wide range of topics relevant to 
                        the sexual risk avoidance field.''.
                                 <all>
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