IIB 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2862 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 13, 2021 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, 

Labor, and Pensions 

AN ACT 

To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services 

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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

3 Suicide Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE. 

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

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

7 after ‘‘suicide prevention hotline’’ the following: ‘‘, under 

8 the universal telephone number designated under section 

9 251(e)(4) of the Communications Act of 1934,’’. 

10 SEC. 3. NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MEDIA CAM11 PAIGN. 

12 (a) NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MEDIA CAM13 PAIGN.— 

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

15 is 3 years after the date of the enactment of this 

16 Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services 

17 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’), in 

18 consultation with the Assistant Secretary for Mental 

19 Health and Substance Use (referred to in this sec20 tion as the ‘‘Assistant Secretary’’) and the Director 

21 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

22 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Director’’), shall 

23 conduct a national suicide prevention media cam24 paign (referred to in this section as the ‘‘national 

25 media campaign’’), in accordance with the require26 ments of this section, for purposes of— 


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1 (A) preventing suicide in the United 

2 States; 

3 (B) educating families, friends, and com4 munities on how to address suicide and suicidal 

5 thoughts, including when to encourage individ6 uals with suicidal risk to seek help; and 

7 (C) increasing awareness of suicide preven8 tion resources of the Centers for Disease Con9 trol and Prevention and the Substance Abuse 

10 and Mental Health Services Administration (in11 cluding the suicide prevention hotline main12 tained under section 520E–3 of the Public 

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

14 any suicide prevention mobile application of the 

15 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or 

16 the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services 

17 Administration, and other support resources de18 termined appropriate by the Secretary. 

19 (2) ADDITIONAL CONSULTATION.—In addition 

20 to consulting with the Assistant Secretary and the 

21 Director under this section, the Secretary shall con22 sult with, as appropriate, State, local, Tribal, and 

23 territorial health departments, primary health care 

24 providers, hospitals with emergency departments, 

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1 sis response services providers, first responders, sui2 cide prevention and mental health professionals, pa3 tient advocacy groups, survivors of suicide attempts, 

4 and representatives of television and social media 

5 platforms in planning the national media campaign 

6 to be conducted under paragraph (1). 

7 (b) TARGET AUDIENCES.— 

8 (1) TAILORING ADVERTISEMENTS AND OTHER

9 COMMUNICATIONS.—In conducting the national 

10 media campaign under subsection (a)(1), the Sec11 retary may tailor culturally competent advertise12 ments and other communications of the campaign 

13 across all available media for a target audience 

14 (such as a particular geographic location or demo15 graphic) across the lifespan. 

16 (2) TARGETING CERTAIN LOCAL AREAS.—The 

17 Secretary shall, to the maximum extent practicable, 

18 use amounts made available under subsection (f) for 

19 media that targets certain local areas or populations 

20 at disproportionate risk for suicide. 

21 (c) USE OF FUNDS.— 

22 (1) REQUIRED USES.— 

23 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, if 

24 reasonably feasible with the funds made avail25 able under subsection (f), carry out the folVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:11 May 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2862.RFS H2862

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1 lowing, with respect to the national media cam2 paign: 

3 (i) Testing and evaluation of adver4 tising. 

5 (ii) Evaluation of the effectiveness of 

6 the national media campaign. 

7 (iii) Operational and management ex8 penses. 

9 (iv) The creation of an educational 

10 toolkit for television and social media plat11 forms to use in discussing suicide and rais12 ing awareness about how to prevent sui13 cide. 

14 (B) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS.— 

15 (i) TESTING AND EVALUATION OF AD16 VERTISING.—In testing and evaluating ad17 vertising under subparagraph (A)(i), the 

18 Secretary shall test all advertisements 

19 after use in the national media campaign 

20 to evaluate the extent to which such adver21 tisements have been effective in carrying 

22 out the purposes of the national media 

23 campaign. 

24 (ii) EVALUATION OF EFFECTIVENESS

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1 uating the effectiveness of the national 

2 media campaign under subparagraph 

3 (A)(ii), the Secretary shall take into ac4 count— 

5 (I) the number of unique calls 

6 that are made to the suicide preven7 tion hotline maintained under section 

8 520E–3 of the Public Health Service 

9 Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–36c) and as10 sess whether there are any State and 

11 regional variations with respect to the 

12 capacity to answer such calls; 

13 (II) the number of unique en14 counters with suicide prevention and 

15 support resources of the Centers for 

16 Disease Control and Prevention and 

17 the Substance Abuse and Mental 

18 Health Services Administration and 

19 assess engagement with such suicide 

20 prevention and support resources; 

21 (III) whether the national media 

22 campaign has contributed to increased 

23 awareness that suicidal individuals 

24 should be engaged, rather than ig25 nored; and 


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1 (IV) such other measures of eval2 uation as the Secretary determines 

3 are appropriate. 

4 (2) OPTIONAL USES.—The Secretary may use 

5 amounts made available under subsection (f) for the 

6 following, with respect to the national media cam7 paign: 

8 (A) Partnerships with professional and 

9 civic groups, community-based organizations, 

10 including faith-based organizations, and Gov11 ernment or Tribal organizations that the Sec12 retary determines have experience in suicide 

13 prevention, including the Substance Abuse and 

14 Mental Health Services Administration and the 

15 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

16 (B) Entertainment industry outreach, 

17 interactive outreach, media projects and activi18 ties, public information, news media outreach, 

19 outreach through television programs, and cor20 porate sponsorship and participation. 

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

22 available under subsection (f) may be obligated or ex23 pended for any of the following: 

24 (1) To supplant current suicide prevention cam25 paigns. 


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1 (2) For partisan political purposes, or to ex2 press advocacy in support of or to defeat any clearly 

3 identified candidate, clearly identified ballot initia4 tive, or clearly identified legislative or regulatory 

5 proposal. 

6 (e) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 18 

7 months after implementation of the national media cam8 paign has begun, the Secretary, in coordination with the 

9 Assistant Secretary and the Director, shall, with respect 

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

11 to Congress a report that describes— 

12 (1) the strategy of the national media campaign 

13 and whether specific objectives of such campaign 

14 were accomplished, including whether such campaign 

15 impacted the number of calls made to lifeline crisis 

16 centers and the capacity of such centers to manage 

17 such calls; 

18 (2) steps taken to ensure that the national 

19 media campaign operates in an effective and effi20 cient manner consistent with the overall strategy 

21 and focus of the national media campaign; 

22 (3) plans to purchase advertising time and 

23 space; 

24 (4) policies and practices implemented to ensure 

25 that Federal funds are used responsibly to purchase 


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1 advertising time and space and eliminate the poten2 tial for waste, fraud, and abuse; and 

3 (5) all contracts entered into with a corpora4 tion, a partnership, or an individual working on be5 half of the national media campaign. 

6 (f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For pur7 poses of carrying out this section, there is authorized to 

8 be appropriated $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 

9 through 2026. 

Passed the House of Representatives May 12, 2021. 

Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, 

Clerk. 


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