Congress directs mental health agency to study tech's impact on kids.
H.R. 5074 — Protecting Young Minds Online Act · Filed by Bryan Steil (R-WI) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Aug 29, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill directs the Center for Mental Health Services (a federal agency within the Public Health Service) to develop and implement a strategy to help local communities address how new technologies—particularly social media—affect children's mental health. It adds this responsibility to the agency's existing duties under federal law.
Why we flagged it
The bill straightforwardly adds a new duty to an existing federal mental health agency. It is a routine legislative amendment that expands the scope of a public-health function without creating new authorities, exemptions, or private benefits.
What the text implies
- The bill does not appropriate funds or specify how the strategy will be resourced—implementation depends on future budget decisions and agency prioritization within existing appropriations.
- The strategy's effectiveness will depend on the Center's capacity to coordinate with state/local mental health systems, schools, and tech platforms, which the bill does not mandate or fund.
- No enforcement mechanism or timeline is specified; the bill creates a directive but not a deadline or accountability measure for completion.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill expands a federal mental health agency's mandate to address a documented public-health concern (technology's effects on child mental health) without restricting any citizen rights or imposing costs. Communities and families gain access to expert guidance on a problem they currently face with limited coordinated federal support.
Named in the bill
Center for Mental Health Services, Public Health Service Act, Section 520(b), local communities, social media platforms
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 5 Democrats.
- Aug 29, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Aug 29, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $100,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 1 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Bryan Steil, the sponsor, reported $1,735,700 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- AT&T Services, Inc. — $100,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 16, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (581 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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