I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 453 
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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 21, 2015 
Mr. HULTGREN (for himself, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. PITTS, Mr. NEUGEBAUER, 
Mr. MILLER of Florida, Mr. MULVANEY, Mr. FINCHER, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. 
HUELSKAMP, Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio, Mr. SALMON, Mr. NUNNELEE, Mr. 
JONES, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. MEADOWS, Mr. POMPEO, and Mr. GOWDY) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on En-
ergy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, 
acting through the Administrator of the Health Re-
sources 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 Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:10 Jan 26, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H453.IH
H453
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Healthy Relationships 
Act of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. SEXUAL RISK AVOIDANCE EDUCATION. 
(a) GRANTS.—The Secretary of Health and Human 
Services, acting through the Administrator of the Health 
Resources and Services Administration, may award grants 
on a competitive basis to public and private entities to pro-
vide qualified sexual risk avoidance education to youth and 
their parents. 
(b) QUALIFIED SEXUAL RISK AVOIDANCE EDU-
CATION.—To qualify for funding under subsection (a), 
sexual risk avoidance education shall meet each of the fol-
lowing: 
(1) The primary emphasis and context for each 
topic covered through the funding shall be the un-
ambiguous message that postponing sexual activity 
is the optimal sexual health behavior for youth. 
(2) The education shall be medically accurate. 
(3) The education shall be an evidence-based 
approach. 
(4) The education shall be age-appropriate. 
(5) The education shall thoroughly address each 
of the following: 
(A) The holistic individual and societal 
benefits associated with personal responsibility, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:10 Jan 26, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H453.IH
H453
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
success sequencing, self-regulation, goal setting, 
healthy decisionmaking, and a focus on the fu-
ture. 
(B) The research-based advantage of re-
serving sexual activity for marriage, as associ-
ated with poverty prevention and optimal phys-
ical and emotional health for all youth, regard-
less of previous sexual experience. 
(C) The skills needed to resist the perva-
sive, 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, al-
cohol, and the misuse of social media. 
(6) The education shall ensure that any infor-
mation provided on contraception— 
(A) emphasizes the superior health benefits 
of sexual delay; and 
(B) does not exaggerate the effectiveness 
of contraception in preventing the physical and 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:10 Jan 26, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H453.IH
H453
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
non-physical consequences of teenage sexual ac-
tivity. 
(c) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants under subsection 
(a), the Secretary shall give priority to applicants pro-
posing 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 re-
garding healthy sexual decisionmaking. 
(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act: 
(1) The term ‘‘age-appropriate’’ means appro-
priate for the general developmental and social ma-
turity of the age group (as opposed to the cognitive 
ability to understand a topic, or the atypical develop-
ment, of a small segment of the targeted popu-
lation). 
(2) The term ‘‘evidence-based approach’’ means 
an approach that— 
(A) has a clear theoretical framework inte-
grating research findings with practical imple-
mentation relevant to the field; 
(B) matches the needs and desired out-
comes for the intended audience; and 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:10 Jan 26, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H453.IH
H453
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
(C) if effectively implemented, will dem-
onstrate improved outcomes for the targeted 
population. 
(3) The term ‘‘medically accurate’’ means ref-
erenced to peer-reviewed research by medical, edu-
cational, 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 in-
creasing the chance of avoiding poverty by means of 
progression through the following behavorial bench-
marks in the following sequence: completing school, 
securing a job, and marrying before bearing chil-
dren. 
(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—To carry out this Act, there 
is authorized to be appropriated $110,000,000 for 
each of fiscal years 2016 through 2020. Amounts 
authorized to be appropriated by the preceding sen-
tence shall be derived exclusively from amounts in 
the Prevention and Public Health Fund established 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:10 Jan 26, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H453.IH
H453
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
by section 4002 of the Patient Protection and Af-
fordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 300u–11). 
(2) FEDERAL ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Of the 
amount authorized to be appropriated by paragraph 
(1) for a fiscal year— 
(A) not more than $1,000,000 are author-
ized to 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 assist-
ance by qualified organizations whose— 
(i) sole focus is the development and 
advancement of sexual risk avoidance; 
(ii) have expertise in theory-based sex-
ual risk avoidance curriculum development 
and implementation; 
(iii) have direct experience in devel-
oping sexual risk avoidance evaluation in-
struments; and 
(iv) can offer technical assistance and 
training on a wide range of topics relevant 
to the sexual risk avoidance field. 
Æ 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:10 Jan 26, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\H453.IH
H453
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS