Hope Heals Act of 2026
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Hope Heals Act of 2026 is a mental health crisis coordination bill. Within 180 days, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must assess whether executive departments that serve the public can better identify people experiencing a mental health crisis or related distress, share referral mechanisms and best practices for suicide prevention, and distribute validated screening tools such as PHQ-3 or comparable symptom indicators. HHS must coordinate with relevant departments, including Veterans Affairs, Defense, and Education, may consult suicide-prevention experts, mental health professionals, public health researchers, academic institutions, and similar entities, and then send a report and recommendations to congressional committees. Executive departments must implement those recommendations to the extent practicable.
Who Benefits and How
People in mental health crisis benefit if federal service points are better able to identify acute psychological distress, connect them to suicide-prevention resources, and use screening tools consistently. Veterans, service members, students, and other members of the public who interact with VA, DoD, Education, or other departments benefit from more coordinated referral practices. Congressional health committees benefit from a concrete HHS assessment instead of scattered agency practices.
Who Bears the Burden and How
HHS public health staff must complete the assessment, coordinate with other departments, consult outside experts, and submit the report. VA, Defense, Education, and other executive departments must provide information and implement practicable recommendations. Federal service offices may need to revise referral workflows, screening-tool distribution, staff training, and crisis-response coordination.
Key Provisions
- Requires HHS to assess federal coordination for identifying people in mental health crisis.
- Directs HHS to examine referral mechanisms, suicide-prevention best practices, and screening-tool distribution.
- Requires coordination with relevant departments such as Veterans Affairs, Defense, and Education.
- Authorizes consultation with suicide-prevention experts, mental health professionals, academic institutions, and behavioral-health researchers.
- Requires a congressional report and directs executive departments to implement practicable recommendations.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires HHS to assess and report on better cross-agency coordination for identifying people in a mental health crisis, sharing suicide-prevention referrals, distributing screening tools such as PHQ-3, and having relevant executive departments implement practicable recommendations.
Key Policy Areas
Healthcare, Government
Primary Purpose
Requires HHS to assess and report on better cross-agency coordination for identifying people in a mental health crisis, sharing suicide-prevention referrals, distributing screening tools such as PHQ-3, and having relevant executive departments implement practicable recommendations.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- People in mental health crisis
- Veterans seeking federal services
- Service members seeking support
- Students using federal education services
- Congressional health committees
Identified Costs
- HHS public health staff
- VA service offices
- Defense health offices
- Education Department service offices
- Federal frontline staff
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMrs. Biggs of South Carolina introduced the following bill; which …
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Education Department service offices, HHS public health staff, VA service offices
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology