I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1448
To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize the Secretary of Health
and Human Services, acting through the Assistant Secretary for Mental
Health and Substance Use, to award grants for peer mental health
first aid, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY21, 2025
Ms. B
ALINT(for herself, Ms. SALINAS, and Ms. NORTON) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize the
Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through
the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance
Use, to award grants for peer mental health first aid,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Peer Education and 4
Emergency Response for Mental Health Act of 2025’’ or 5
the ‘‘PEER Mental Health Act of 2025’’. 6
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SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR PEER MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID. 1
Title V of the Public Health Service Act is amended 2
by inserting after section 520J of such Act (42 U.S.C. 3
290bb–41) the following: 4
‘‘SEC. 520J–1. GRANTS FOR PEER MENTAL HEALTH FIRST 5
AID. 6
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall award 7
grants to eligible entities— 8
‘‘(1) to train teachers, other relevant school 9
personnel (including education support profes-10
sionals), students, and parents and caregivers of stu-11
dents— 12
‘‘(A) to recognize symptoms of childhood 13
and adolescent mental health conditions; 14
‘‘(B) to refer students to appropriate men-15
tal health services if necessary; and 16
‘‘(C) to recognize signs of immediate men-17
tal distress and, upon recognizing such signs 18
apply mental health first aid tactics; and 19
‘‘(2) to provide education to such teachers, per-20
sonnel, students, parents, and caregivers regarding 21
resources that are available in the community for in-22
dividuals with a mental illness. 23
‘‘(b) R
ELATION TO OTHERMENTALHEALTH 24
A
WARENESSTRAININGGRANTS.—An eligible entity may 25
receive grant funds under this section in addition to re-26
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•HR 1448 IH
ceiving amounts made available to such eligible entity pur-1
suant to section 520J. 2
‘‘(c) A
LLOCATION FORSCHOOLS INRURALAREAS.— 3
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In awarding grants under 4
this section, the Secretary shall award not less than 5
25 percent of the amounts made available to carry 6
out this section for a fiscal year to eligible entities 7
that are elementary schools or secondary schools in 8
rural areas or that are applying for grants on behalf 9
of such schools. 10
‘‘(2) R
EALLOCATION.—If the Secretary is un-11
able to obligate the total amount of funds set aside 12
under paragraph (1) for a fiscal year due to a lack 13
of qualified applications from eligible applicants de-14
scribed in paragraph (1), the Secretary shall reallo-15
cate the remainder of such funds for making grants 16
under this section to other eligible entities. 17
‘‘(d) A
PPLICATION.— 18
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—To seek a grant under this 19
section, an eligible entity shall submit an application 20
to the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and 21
containing such information as the Secretary may 22
require, including a plan for the rigorous evaluation 23
of activities that are carried out with funds received 24
through the grant. 25
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‘‘(2) STREAMLINED PROCESS .—The Secretary 1
shall streamline the process for applying for a grant 2
under this section so as to keep such process from 3
imposing an unreasonable barrier, especially for eli-4
gible entities with limited personnel available to pre-5
pare a grant application. 6
‘‘(e) T
ECHNICALASSISTANCE.—The Secretary shall 7
provide technical assistance to eligible entities applying 8
for, or receiving, grants under this section. Such technical 9
assistance shall include the development and dissemina-10
tion of best practices for providing training and education 11
described in subsection (a). 12
‘‘(f) D
EFINITION.—In this section: 13
‘‘(1) The terms ‘elementary school’, ‘local edu-14
cational agency’, ‘secondary school’, and ‘State edu-15
cational agency’ have the meanings given to those 16
terms in section 8101 of the Elementary and Sec-17
ondary Education Act of 1965. 18
‘‘(2) The term ‘eligible entity’ means an ele-19
mentary school, a local educational agency, a sec-20
ondary school, or a State educational agency. 21
‘‘(3) The term ‘rural area’ refers to a rural 22
area as defined by the Health Resources and Serv-23
ices Administration for purposes of awarding rural 24
health grants. 25
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‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—To 1
carry out this section, there is authorized to be appro-2
priated $24,963,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 3
2030.’’. 4
Æ
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