Sponsors (2)
Official title: To amend the Public Health Service Act to award grants to eligible crisis centers to provide follow-up services to individuals receiving suicide prevention and crisis intervention services, to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to improve the accessibility of 9-8-8, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 26, 2026 by Jamie Ben Raskin · Last progress March 26, 2026
The bill strengthens 9-8-8 access and funds post-crisis outreach to improve continuity of care, but concentrates limited grant-funded services geographically and imposes compliance and upgrade costs and near-term implementation risks on providers and taxpayers.
People at risk of suicide (and their families/caregivers) will receive funded, coordinated post-crisis follow-up outreach and involvement that increases continuity of care and reduces the chance of crisis recurrence.
Crisis centers and local programs will receive technical assistance and funding to expand local capacity for continuity of care after crisis contacts.
People who call or text 9-8-8 — including users of non-service-initialized mobile handsets — will have improved access because carriers must route that traffic, expanding reach for low-income people, seniors, and people with disabilities.
Communities not in the designated funded network (and centers not selected by HHS) may be left without funded follow-up services, creating uneven geographic access and continuing service gaps for at-risk individuals.
Commercial mobile providers will incur compliance costs to upgrade systems to route all 9-8-8 traffic, costs that could be passed to consumers or reduce carrier margins.
Rapid rulemaking and a one-year compliance deadline could strain smaller providers and vendors, risking implementation errors or temporary disruptions to service during the transition.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes grants for 9-8-8 follow-up services ($30M FY2027) and requires mobile providers to transmit all calls/texts to 9-8-8 under FCC rules.
Creates a federal grant program to fund follow-up services for people who contact 9-8-8 or receive short-term crisis care, and requires mobile phone companies to transmit all calls and texts to 9-8-8. The bill authorizes $30 million for FY2027 for grants to crisis centers to perform outreach, risk check-ins, care coordination, and referrals. It also directs the FCC to adopt rules within 270 days to ensure commercial mobile service providers route 9-8-8 communications (including from some non-service-initialized handsets) and requires compliance within one year after the rules are issued; certain statutory telecom amendments take effect two years after enactment.