Congress funds mental health follow-up care and removes barriers to 9-8-8 access
H.R. 8122 — 9–8–8 Connect Act · Filed by Jamie Raskin (D-MD) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Mar 26, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill funds crisis centers to provide follow-up care to people who have called or visited for suicide prevention and mental health crisis services, and requires cell phone carriers to route all 9-8-8 calls and texts (including from phones not yet activated on a network) to the national suicide prevention hotline. It also requires multi-line phone systems in businesses and institutions to allow direct dialing to 9-8-8.
Why we flagged it
The bill funds crisis center follow-up services and removes technical barriers to 9-8-8 access. Both mechanisms are straightforward public health infrastructure investments with no hidden carve-outs or private giveaways.
What the text implies
- The 270-day FCC rulemaking timeline may create interim gaps in 9-8-8 routing from non-service-initialized handsets (e.g., new phones not yet activated), potentially leaving some callers unable to reach the hotline during the transition period.
- The 2-year exemption for existing multi-line telephone systems may leave older business and institutional phone systems unable to route 9-8-8 calls for years, creating uneven access depending on where someone calls from.
- Follow-up services funded under the grant program depend on crisis centers being part of the existing 9-8-8 network (section 520E-3), which may exclude smaller or rural crisis providers not yet integrated into that network.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill expands access to mental health follow-up care for people in crisis and removes technical barriers that prevent 9-8-8 calls from reaching help. Both provisions directly serve public health and reduce friction in accessing suicide prevention services.
Who stands to gain
- Crisis centers and mental health service providers receiving grants
- Telecommunications carriers (compliance costs offset by regulatory clarity)
Named in the bill
Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Communications Commission, Crisis centers, Commercial mobile service providers, 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Mar 26, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 26, 2026 — 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 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $70,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 5 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.
Jamie Raskin, the sponsor, reported $412,639 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Council for Mental Wellbeing Fka National Council for Behavioral Health — $70,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 17, 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 (4,570 characters) on Aug 19, 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 Jun 2026 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 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress funds mental health follow-up care and removes barriers to 9-8-8 access” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr8122 Report an error
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