I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3073 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health 
and Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention, to promote mental wellness and resil-
ience and prevent and heal mental health, behavioral health, and psycho-
social conditions through developmentally and culturally appropriate com-
munity programs, and award grants for the purpose of establishing, 
operating, or expanding community-based mental wellness and resilience 
programs, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 2, 2023 
Mr. TONKO (for himself, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mr. 
BACON, and Mrs. PELTOLA) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to direct the Sec-
retary of Health and Human Services, acting through 
the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention, to promote mental wellness and resilience 
and prevent and heal mental health, behavioral health, 
and psychosocial conditions through developmentally and 
culturally appropriate community programs, and award 
grants for the purpose of establishing, operating, or ex-
panding community-based mental wellness and resilience 
programs, and for other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Community Mental 
Wellness and Resilience Act of 2023’’. 
SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAM FOR COMMUNITY MENTAL 
WELLNESS AND RESILIENCE PROGRAMS. 
Title III of the Public Health Service Act is amended 
by inserting after section 317V, as added by section 2201 
of the PREVENT Pandemics Act (Public Law 117–328) 
the following: 
‘‘SEC. 317W. GRANT PROGRAM FOR COMMUNITY MENTAL 
WELLNESS AND RESILIENCE PROGRAMS. 
‘‘(a) GRANTS.— 
‘‘(1) PLANNING GRANTS.— 
‘‘(A) AWARDS.—The Secretary, acting 
through the Director of the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention (in this section referred 
to as the ‘Secretary’), in consultation with the 
Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Sub-
stance Use and the Administrator of the Health 
Resources and Services Administration, shall 
award grants to eligible organizations— 
‘‘(i) to organize a resilience coordi-
nating network; 
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‘‘(ii) to perform assessments of need 
with respect to community mental wellness 
and resilience; and 
‘‘(iii) to prepare an application for a 
grant under paragraph (2). 
‘‘(B) AMOUNT.—The amount of a grant 
under subparagraph (A), with respect to any el-
igible organization seeking such a grant shall 
not exceed $250,000. 
‘‘(C) 
ELIGIBLE
ORGANIZATION
DE-
FINED.—In this paragraph, the term ‘eligible 
organization’ means an organization that— 
‘‘(i) is a nonprofit or community- 
based entity eligible to be a part of the re-
silience coordinating network (as defined in 
subsection (c)); and 
‘‘(ii) has documented support from at 
least 3 other such entities. 
‘‘(2) PROGRAM GRANTS.— 
‘‘(A) AWARDS.—The Secretary, acting 
through the Director of the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention, in consultation with 
the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and 
Substance Use and the Administrator of the 
Health Resources and Services Administration, 
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shall carry out a program of awarding grants to 
resilience coordinating networks, on a competi-
tive basis, for the purpose of establishing, oper-
ating, or expanding community mental wellness 
and resilience programs. 
‘‘(B) AMOUNT.—The amount of a grant 
under subparagraph (A) shall not exceed 
$500,000 each year over a period not to exceed 
four years. 
‘‘(C) RURAL SET ASIDE.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Of the funds ap-
propriated to carry out this section for a 
fiscal year, 20 percent of such funds shall 
be reserved to award grants to community 
mental wellness and resilience programs in 
rural areas. 
‘‘(ii) RURAL AREA DESCRIBED.—For 
purposes of clause (i), a rural area is a re-
gion outside of an urban or suburban area. 
‘‘(iii) INCLUSION.—For purposes of 
clause (ii), a rural area may include indi-
viduals and organizations from multiple 
towns in the county or region involved. 
‘‘(b) PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS.—A program carried 
out using funds awarded under subsection (a)(2) shall 
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take a public health approach to mental health prevention 
and promotion, using the best available evidence, to 
strengthen the entire community’s psychological and emo-
tional wellness and resilience, including by— 
‘‘(1) collecting and analyzing information from 
residents of the community as well as quantitative 
data to identify— 
‘‘(A) protective factors that enhance and 
sustain the community’s capacity for mental 
wellness and resilience; and 
‘‘(B) risk factors that undermine such ca-
pacity; 
‘‘(2) strengthening such protective factors and 
addressing such risk factors; 
‘‘(3) building awareness, skills, tools, and lead-
ership in the community to— 
‘‘(A) facilitate using a public health ap-
proach to mental health; and 
‘‘(B) detect, prevent, and heal mental 
health, behavioral health, and psychosocial con-
ditions among all adults and youth; and 
‘‘(4) developing, implementing, and continually 
evaluating and improving a comprehensive strategic 
plan for carrying out the activities described in para-
graphs (1), (2) and (3) that includes utilizing devel-
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opmentally, linguistically, and culturally appropriate 
evidence-based, evidence-informed, promising-best, 
or indigenous practices for— 
‘‘(A) engaging residents in building social 
connections, including across cultural, geo-
graphic, and economic boundaries; 
‘‘(B) enhancing local economic, social, and 
environmental conditions, including with respect 
to the built environment; 
‘‘(C) becoming trauma-informed and learn-
ing simple self-administrable mental wellness 
and resilience skills; 
‘‘(D) engaging in community activities that 
strengthen mental wellness and resilience; 
‘‘(E) partaking in nonclinical group and 
community-minded prevention and recovery pro-
grams; and 
‘‘(F) other activities to promote mental 
wellness and resilience and prevent or heal indi-
vidual and community traumas. 
‘‘(c) RESILIENCE COORDINATING NETWORK.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In this section, the term 
‘resilience coordinating network’ means a network 
that is composed of 1 or more representatives from 
at least 5 of the categories listed in paragraph (2). 
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‘‘(2) CATEGORIES.—The categories listed in 
this paragraph are the following: 
‘‘(A) Grassroots groups, community-based 
organizations, neighborhood associations, and 
volunteer civic organizations. 
‘‘(B) Elementary and secondary schools, 
high-needs schools, institutions of higher edu-
cation, including community colleges, job-train-
ing programs, and other education or training 
agencies or organizations. 
‘‘(C) Youth serving organizations, such as 
youth after-school and summer programs. 
‘‘(D) Parental, family, and early childhood 
education programs. 
‘‘(E) Faith and spirituality organizations. 
‘‘(F) Senior care organizations. 
‘‘(G) Climate change mitigation and adap-
tation, and environmental conservation, groups 
and organizations. 
‘‘(H) Social and environmental justice 
groups and organizations. 
‘‘(I) Disaster preparedness and emergency 
response groups and organizations. 
‘‘(J) Businesses and business associations. 
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‘‘(K) Police, fire, and other agencies and 
organizations involved with community safety, 
security, and the justice system. 
‘‘(L) Social work, mental health, behavioral 
health, substance use, physical health, public 
health, and other professionals, groups, organi-
zations, agencies, and institutions in the human 
health and social services fields. 
‘‘(M) The general public, including individ-
uals who have experienced adverse mental 
health or behavioral health conditions who can 
represent and engage with populations relevant 
to the community. 
‘‘(d) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary shall 
provide, directly or through grants to, or contracts with 
public or private entities, to eligible organizations and re-
silience coordinating networks technical assistance— 
‘‘(1) in developing applications for grants under 
paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (a); and 
‘‘(2) by sharing best practices learned from re-
silience coordinating networks. 
‘‘(e) REPORT.— 
‘‘(1) SUBMISSION.—Not later than December 
31, 2028, the Secretary shall submit a report to the 
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Congress on the results of the grants under sub-
section (a)(1). 
‘‘(2) CONTENTS.—Such report shall include a 
summary of the best practices used by grantees in 
establishing, operating, or expanding community 
mental wellness and resilience programs, and the 
outputs and outcomes achieved. 
‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) The term ‘public health approach to men-
tal health’ refers to methods that— 
‘‘(A) take a population-level approach to 
promote mental wellness and resilience to pre-
vent problems before they emerge, intervene be-
fore they become more severe, and heal them 
when they do appear, not merely treating indi-
viduals one at a time after symptoms of pathol-
ogy appear; and 
‘‘(B) address mental health and psycho-
social problems by— 
‘‘(i) identifying and strengthening ex-
isting protective factors, and forming new 
ones, that buffer people from and enhance 
their capacity for psychological, emotional, 
and behavioral wellness and resilience for 
adversities; 
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‘‘(ii) taking a holistic systems perspec-
tive that recognizes that most mental 
health, behavioral health, and psychosocial 
conditions result from numerous inter-
related personal, family, social, economic, 
and environmental factors that require 
multipronged community-based interven-
tions; and 
‘‘(iii) using the best available evidence 
to take action and implement strategies 
that support mental health prevention and 
recovery efforts. 
‘‘(2) The term ‘community’ means people, 
groups, and organizations that reside in or work 
within a specific geographic area, such as a city, 
neighborhood, subdivision, or urban, suburban, or 
rural locale. 
‘‘(3) The term ‘community trauma’ means a 
traumatic event or events that are shared by a com-
munity and that have lasting adverse effects on the 
health and well-being of the community. 
‘‘(4) The term ‘protective factors’ means 
strengths, skills, resources, and characteristics 
that— 
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‘‘(A) are associated with a lower likelihood 
of negative outcomes of adversities; or 
‘‘(B) reduce the impact on people of toxic 
stresses or a traumatic experience. 
‘‘(5) The term ‘mental wellness’ means a state 
of well-being in which an individual experiences posi-
tive emotional functioning, pursues self-defined 
goals, establishes and maintains meaningful relation-
ships, and feels a sense of meaning and purpose. At 
the individual level, well-being is based on funda-
mental social, cognitive, and emotional skills that 
help individuals react, cope, and adapt in healthy 
ways to stress, uncertainty, adversity, trauma, and 
change. At the community level, well-being is influ-
enced by the social, economic, educational, and envi-
ronmental factors and conditions that either enhance 
or diminish well-being within the community. 
‘‘(6) The term ‘psychosocial problem’ refers to 
social and environmental structures and processes 
that adversely effect and influence an individual’s 
mental state. 
‘‘(7) The term ‘resilience’ means that people de-
velop cognitive, psychological, emotional capabilities 
and social connections that enable them to calm 
their body, mind, emotions, and behaviors during 
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toxic stresses or traumatic experiences in ways that 
enable them to— 
‘‘(A) 
respond 
without 
negative 
con-
sequences for themselves or others; and 
‘‘(B) use the experiences as catalysts to de-
velop a constructive new sense of meaning, pur-
pose, and hope. 
‘‘(8) The term ‘toxic stress’ means exposure to 
prolonged, severe, and stressful situations with no 
period of recovery or support. 
‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—To carry out this section, 
there is authorized to be appropriated $36,000,000 
for the period of fiscal years 2024 through 2028. 
‘‘(2) LIMITATION.—Of the amount made avail-
able to carry out this section for a fiscal year, not 
more than 5 percent of such funds may be used to 
carry out subsection (d).’’. 
Æ 
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