Title: STRESS Act
Policy area: Agriculture and Food

Summary:
Stemming the Tide of Rural Economic Stress and Suicide Act or the STRESS Act
This bill amends the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 to reauthorize through FY2023 and modify the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, which is a Department of Agriculture (USDA) program to provide grants for programs that provide mental health services to individuals engaged in farming, ranching, and other agriculture-related occupations. The bill also sets forth requirements for USDA to review and evaluate the stress assistance programs carried out using the grants.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5259 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5259

To amend the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 to reauthorize 
 the farm and ranch stress assistance network, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 13, 2018

 Mr. Emmer (for himself, Mr. Katko, Mr. Young of Iowa, Mr. O'Halleran, 
  Mr. Rodney Davis of Illinois, Mr. Pocan, Ms. Pingree, Ms. Michelle 
 Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Mr. Faso, and Mr. Nolan) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 to reauthorize 
 the farm and ranch stress assistance network, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Stemming the Tide of Rural Economic 
Stress and Suicide Act'' or the ``STRESS Act''.

SEC. 2. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE FARM AND RANCH STRESS ASSISTANCE 
              NETWORK.

    Section 7522 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (7 
U.S.C. 5936) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``coordination with the 
        Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall make competitive 
        grants to support cooperative programs between State 
        cooperative extension services and nonprofit organizations'' 
        and inserting ``consultation with the Secretary of Health and 
        Human Services, shall make competitive grants to State 
        cooperative extension services and Indian Tribes to support 
        programs with nonprofit organizations in order'';
            (2) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``Internet'' 
                before ``websites'';
                    (B) by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the 
                following:
            ``(2) training for individuals who may assist farmers in 
        crisis, including programs and workshops;''; and
                    (C) in paragraph (4), by inserting ``, including 
                the dissemination of information and materials'' before 
                the semicolon at the end;
            (3) in subsection (c), by striking ``to enable the State 
        cooperative extension services'' and inserting ``or Indian 
        tribes, as applicable, to'';
            (4) in subsection (d), by striking ``fiscal years'' and all 
        that follows and inserting ``fiscal years 2019 through 2023''; 
        and
            (5) by redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (e) and 
        inserting after subsection (c) the following:
    ``(d) Oversight and Evaluation.--The Secretary, in consultation 
with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall review and 
evaluate the stress assistance programs carried out pursuant to this 
section.
            ``(1) Program review.--Not later than 2 years after the 
        date on which grants are first provided under this section, and 
        annually thereafter, the Secretary shall--
                    ``(A) review the programs funded under a grant made 
                under this section to evaluate the effectiveness of the 
                services offered through such a program and suggest 
                alternative services not offered by a grant recipient 
                that would be appropriate for behavioral health 
                services; and
                    ``(B) submit to Congress, and make available on the 
                public Internet website of the Department of 
                Agriculture, a report containing the results of the 
                review conducted under subparagraph (A) and a 
                description of the services provided through programs 
                funded under such a grant.
            ``(2) Public availability.--In making the report under 
        paragraph (1) publicly available, the Secretary shall take such 
        steps as may be necessary to ensure that such report does not 
        contain any information that would identify any person who 
        received services under a program funded under a grant made 
        under this section.''.
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