I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2028 
To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through 
the Administration for Children & Families, to award grants on a com-
petitive basis to public and private entities to provide exclusively edu-
cation in sexual risk avoidance (meaning avoiding all sexual risk by 
voluntarily refraining from nonmarital sexual activity). 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 6, 2017 
Mr. HULTGREN (for himself, Mr. LAHOOD, Mr. BANKS of Indiana, Mr. ADER-
HOLT, Mrs. HARTZLER, Mr. JODY B. HICE of Georgia, and Mr. BABIN) 
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 Administration for Children & Fami-
lies, to award grants on a competitive basis to public 
and private entities to provide exclusively education in 
sexual risk avoidance (meaning avoiding all sexual risk 
by voluntarily refraining from nonmarital sexual activ-
ity). 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Healthy Relationships 
Act of 2017’’. 
SEC. 2. SEXUAL RISK AVOIDANCE EDUCATION. 
(a) GRANTS.—The Secretary of Health and Human 
Services, acting through the Administration for Children 
& Families (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’), 
may award grants on a competitive basis to public and 
private entities for the exclusive purpose of providing 
qualified sexual risk avoidance (in this section referred to 
as ‘‘SRA’’) education to youth and their parents. 
(b) QUALIFIED SRA EDUCATION.—To receive fund-
ing for SRA education under this section, an entity shall 
demonstrate to the Secretary each of the following: 
(1) The education— 
(A) will be evidenced-based, meaning it will 
have a clear theoretical framework integrating 
research findings with practical implementation 
relevant to the SRA field that matches the 
needs and desired outcomes for the intended 
audience; and 
(B) if effectively implemented, will give 
youth improved life and health outcomes. 
(2) The unambiguous and primary emphasis 
and context for each topic covered by the education 
will be the message to middle and high school stu-
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dents that avoiding nonmarital sexual activity offers 
the best opportunity for optimal sexual health. 
(3) The education will be medically accurate, 
meaning that information will be referenced to peer 
reviewed publications by educational, scientific, gov-
ernmental, or health organizations. 
(4) The education will be age-appropriate, 
meaning it will be appropriate for the general devel-
opmental and social maturity of the targeted age 
group (as opposed to the cognitive ability to under-
stand a topic, or the atypical maturation, of a small 
segment of the targeted population). 
(5) The education will thoroughly address each 
of the following: 
(A) The holistic individual and societal 
benefits associated with personal responsibility, 
self-regulation, goal setting, healthy decision-
making, and a focus on the future. 
(B) The research-supported advantage of 
reserving sexual activity for marriage, in order 
to improve the future prospects and physical 
and emotional health of youth, and helping sex-
ually active students return to a risk-free sta-
tus. In this subparagraph, the terms ‘‘sexual 
activity’’ and ‘‘sexually active’’ refer to any type 
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of genital contact or sexual stimulation for the 
purpose of arousal, including sexual intercourse. 
(C) The increased likelihood of avoiding 
poverty when youth implement the ‘‘success se-
quence’’ by achieving three norms in sequence: 
complete school, secure a full time job, and wait 
until at least 21 years of age to marry and have 
children. 
(D) The skills needed to resist the harms 
associated with pornography and the pervasive, 
sex-saturated culture that portrays teenage sex-
ual activity as an expected norm, with few risks 
or negative consequences. 
(E) 
The 
foundational 
components 
of 
healthy relationships and their impact on the 
formation of healthy marriages and safe and 
stable families. 
(F) How to resist and avoid sexual coer-
cion and dating violence, recognizing that even 
with consent, teen sex remains a youth risk be-
havior. 
(G) How other youth risk behaviors, such 
as drug and alcohol usage, increase the risk for 
teen sex. 
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(6) The education will ensure that any informa-
tion provided on contraception— 
(A) is medically accurate and ensures that 
students understand that contraception offers 
only physical risk reduction and not risk elimi-
nation; and 
(B) does not include demonstration, sim-
ulation, or distribution of contraceptive devices. 
(c) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants under subsection 
(a), the Secretary shall give priority to applicants pro-
posing programs to provide qualified SRA education that 
will— 
(1) regularly reinforce the SRA message in both 
the middle and high school grades; and 
(2) promote parent-child communication re-
garding the benefits of avoiding all sexual risk. 
(d) APPLICATION.—To seek an application under this 
section, an entity shall submit an application at such time, 
in such manner, and containing such assurances as the 
Secretary may require. At a minimum, the application 
shall include— 
(1) assurances satisfactory to the Secretary 
that each of the conditions listed in subsection (c) 
will be satisfied; 
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(2) an individualized plan to evaluate the SRA 
education to be funded through the grant for behav-
ioral impact, or to inform best practices in the provi-
sion of such SRA education that are based on re-
search that— 
(A) is conducted by independent research-
ers who have experience in conducting and pub-
lishing research in peer-reviewed outlets; and 
(B) is not part of a national evaluation 
that is mandated by, contracted for, or con-
ducted by the Department of Health and 
Human Services; and 
(3) an agreement to expend not more than 20 
percent of their overall grant award for such evalua-
tion. 
(e) TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may provide 
training and technical assistance to grantees under 
this section. 
(2) REQUIREMENTS.—Any such training and 
technical assistance shall— 
(A) emphasize the practical implementa-
tion of SRA in all educational messaging to 
teens; 
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(B) be provided directly to grantees by 
SRA-credentialed experts; 
(C) cover methodologies and best practices 
in SRA for teens; and 
(D) consistently teach in the context of a 
public health model that stresses risk avoidance 
or a return to a risk avoidance status. 
(3) SETTINGS.—Any such training and tech-
nical assistance shall be provided during national 
and regional conferences, webinars, and one-on-one 
conversations about funded projects. 
(4) QUALIFIED
ORGANIZATIONS.—In addition 
to training and technical assistance provided by staff 
of the Department of Health and Human Services, 
such training and technical assistance shall be pro-
vided by qualified organizations that have— 
(A) sole focus on the development and ad-
vancement of SRA education; 
(B) expertise in theory-based SRA pro-
gram development and implementation; 
(C) direct experience in developing SRA 
evaluation instruments; and 
(D) the ability to offer technical assistance 
and training on topics relevant to the SRA 
field. 
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(f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—To carry out this section, 
there is authorized to be appropriated $100,000,000 
for each of fiscal years 2018 through 2022. 
Amounts authorized to be appropriated by the pre-
ceding sentence shall be derived exclusively from 
amounts made available for the Teen Pregnancy 
Prevention program of the Department of Health 
and Human Services. 
(2) FEDERAL ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Of the 
amount authorized to be appropriated by paragraph 
(1) for a fiscal year— 
(A) up to $1,000,000 are authorized to be 
used for the creation of a national media cam-
paign to increase understanding and apprecia-
tion for SRA education; 
(B) not more than $1,000,000 are author-
ized to be used for Federal administrative costs; 
and 
(C) of the amount used by the Secretary 
for administrative costs, no more than 25 per-
cent shall be used for training and technical as-
sistance. 
Æ 
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