I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2862 

To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a national 

suicide prevention media campaign, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 28, 2021 

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

which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

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, 

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: ‘‘, under 


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1 the universal telephone number designated under Section 

2 251(e)(4) of the Communications Act of 1934,’’. 

3 SEC. 3. NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MEDIA CAM4 PAIGN. 

5 (a) NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MEDIA CAM6 PAIGN.— 

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

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

9 Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services 

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

11 consultation with the Assistant Secretary for Mental 

12 Health and Substance Use (referred to in this sec13 tion as the ‘‘Assistant Secretary’’) and the Director 

14 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

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

16 conduct a national suicide prevention media cam17 paign (referred to in this section as the ‘‘national 

18 media campaign’’), in accordance with the require19 ments of this section, for purposes of— 

20 (A) preventing suicide in the United 

21 States; 

22 (B) educating families, friends, and com23 munities on how to address suicide and suicidal 

24 thoughts, including when to encourage individ25 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 Secretary. 

13 (2) ADDITIONAL CONSULTATION.—In addition 

14 to consulting with the Assistant Secretary and the 

15 Director under this section, the Secretary shall con16 sult with, as appropriate, State, local, Tribal, and 

17 territorial health departments, primary health care 

18 providers, hospitals with emergency departments, 

19 mental and behavioral health services providers, cri20 sis response services providers, first responders, sui21 cide prevention and mental health professionals, pa22 tient advocacy groups, survivors of suicide attempts, 

23 and representatives of television and social media 

24 platforms in planning the national media campaign 

25 to be conducted under paragraph (1). 


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1 (b) TARGET AUDIENCES.— 

2 (1) TAILORING ADVERTISEMENTS AND OTHER

3 COMMUNICATIONS.—In conducting the national 

4 media campaign under subsection (a)(1), the Sec5 retary may tailor culturally competent advertise6 ments and other communications of the campaign 

7 across all available media for a target audience 

8 (such as a particular geographic location or demo9 graphic) across the lifespan. 

10 (2) TARGETING CERTAIN LOCAL AREAS.—The 

11 Secretary shall, to the maximum extent practicable, 

12 use amounts made available under subsection (f) for 

13 media that targets certain local areas or populations 

14 at disproportionate risk for suicide. 

15 (c) USE OF FUNDS.— 

16 (1) REQUIRED USES.— 

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

18 reasonably feasible with the funds made avail19 able under subsection (f), carry out the fol20 lowing, with respect to the national media cam21 paign: 

22 (i) Testing and evaluation of adver23 tising. 

24 (ii) Evaluation of the effectiveness of 

25 the national media campaign. 


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1 (iii) Operational and management ex2 penses. 

3 (iv) The creation of an educational 

4 toolkit for television and social media plat5 forms to use in discussing suicide and rais6 ing awareness about how to prevent sui7 cide. 

8 (B) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS.— 

9 (i) TESTING AND EVALUATION OF AD10 VERTISING.—In testing and evaluating ad11 vertising under subparagraph (A)(i), the 

12 Secretary shall test all advertisements 

13 after use in the national media campaign 

14 to evaluate the extent to which such adver15 tisements have been effective in carrying 

16 out the purposes of the national media 

17 campaign. 

18 (ii) EVALUATION OF EFFECTIVENESS

19 OF NATIONAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN.—In eval20 uating the effectiveness of the national 

21 media campaign under subparagraph 

22 (A)(ii), the Secretary shall take into ac23 count— 

24 (I) the number of unique calls 

25 that are made to the suicide prevenVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:43 May 11, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2862.IH H2862

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1 tion hotline maintained under section 

2 520E–3 of the Public Health Service 

3 Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–36c) and as4 sess whether there are any State and 

5 regional variations with respect to the 

6 capacity to answer such calls; 

7 (II) the number of unique en8 counters with suicide prevention and 

9 support resources of the Centers for 

10 Disease Control and Prevention and 

11 the Substance Abuse and Mental 

12 Health Services Administration and 

13 assess engagement with such suicide 

14 prevention and support resources; 

15 (III) whether the national media 

16 campaign has contributed to increased 

17 awareness that suicidal individuals 

18 should be engaged, rather than ig19 nored; and 

20 (IV) such other measures of eval21 uation as the Secretary determines 

22 are appropriate. 

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

24 amounts made available under subsection (f) for the 


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

3 (A) Partnerships with professional and 

4 civic groups, community-based organizations, 

5 including faith-based organizations, and Gov6 ernment or Tribal organizations that the Sec7 retary determines have experience in suicide 

8 prevention, including the Substance Abuse and 

9 Mental Health Services Administration and the 

10 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

11 (B) Entertainment industry outreach, 

12 interactive outreach, media projects and activi13 ties, public information, news media outreach, 

14 outreach through television programs, and cor15 porate sponsorship and participation. 

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

17 available under subsection (f) may be obligated or ex18 pended for any of the following: 

19 (1) To supplant current suicide prevention cam20 paigns. 

21 (2) For partisan political purposes, or to ex22 press advocacy in support of or to defeat any clearly 

23 identified candidate, clearly identified ballot initia24 tive, or clearly identified legislative or regulatory 

25 proposal. 


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

2 months after implementation of the national media cam3 paign has begun, the Secretary, in coordination with the 

4 Assistant Secretary and the Director, shall, with respect 

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

6 to Congress a report that describes— 

7 (1) the strategy of the national media campaign 

8 and whether specific objectives of such campaign 

9 were accomplished, including whether such campaign 

10 impacted the number of calls made to lifeline crisis 

11 centers and the capacity of such centers to manage 

12 such calls; 

13 (2) steps taken to ensure that the national 

14 media campaign operates in an effective and effi15 cient manner consistent with the overall strategy 

16 and focus of the national media campaign; 

17 (3) plans to purchase advertising time and 

18 space; 

19 (4) policies and practices implemented to ensure 

20 that Federal funds are used responsibly to purchase 

21 advertising time and space and eliminate the poten22 tial for waste, fraud, and abuse; and 

23 (5) all contracts entered into with a corpora24 tion, a partnership, or an individual working on be25 half of the national media campaign. 


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1 (f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For pur2 poses of carrying out this section, there is authorized to 

3 be appropriated $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 

4 through 2025. 

Æ 


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