ADS for Mental Health Services Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
Creates a five-year transparency requirement for covered digital advertising platforms: social media platforms, search engines, public websites, online services, or applications that sell digital ad space and have more than 100 million unique monthly users. Each covered platform must report annually to the Federal Trade Commission on how much of its advertising inventory is free public service advertising, the estimated dollar value of those ads, and how many promote local, regional, free, mental, behavioral, or physical health resources.
Who Benefits and How
People looking for suicide-prevention, self-harm, eating-disorder, substance-abuse, behavioral-addiction, or social-isolation resources benefit indirectly because the bill spotlights whether the largest ad platforms are donating meaningful ad space for accessible health resources. State, local, and regional mental-health providers and SAMHSA-approved resources benefit from greater visibility in public reporting. The FTC and congressional commerce committees gain comparable data on platform public-service advertising rather than relying on voluntary platform descriptions.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Covered digital advertising platforms bear the direct compliance burden. They must track public service ads over the previous 12 months, calculate counts and percentages of total ads, estimate the dollar value of free public service inventory, classify ads by health-resource category, and explain how the ads meet the statutory definition. The FTC must receive the platform reports and publish annual summaries to the Senate Commerce Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee within 180 days. The bill preserves existing privacy and data-security laws, so platforms cannot use the new reporting duty to override those obligations.
Key Provisions
- Requires covered digital advertising platforms to submit annual FTC reports on free public service advertisements.
- Requires platforms to report the count, percentage, and estimated dollar value of public service ads over the prior 12 months.
- Requires separate reporting for ads focused on local or regional mental, behavioral, and physical health care resources.
- Defines public service advertisements as free platform-served ads promoting accessible health resources, including SAMHSA-approved resources for self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, behavioral addiction, and social isolation.
- Defines covered platforms as ad-selling social media, search, website, online-service, or application platforms with more than 100 million unique monthly users.
- Requires FTC public summary reports to House and Senate committees within 180 days of platform reports and sunsets the act after five years.
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 very large advertising-supported digital platforms to report annually to the Federal Trade Commission on free public service advertisements for mental, behavioral, and physical health resources, and requires FTC public reports to Congress.
Key Policy Areas
Technology, Mental Health, Consumer Protection
Primary Purpose
Requires very large advertising-supported digital platforms to report annually to the Federal Trade Commission on free public service advertisements for mental, behavioral, and physical health resources, and requires FTC public reports to Congress.
Policy Domains
Section 2 - Digital platform public-service advertising reporting
Identified Gains
- People seeking mental and behavioral health resources
- SAMHSA-approved state, local, and regional health resources
- Federal Trade Commission
- Congressional commerce committees
Identified Costs
- Covered digital advertising platforms with more than 100 million unique monthly users
- Federal Trade Commission
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
Passed SenateHeld at the desk.
Message on Senate action sent to the House.
Received in the House.
Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR …
Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with an amendment by …
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Reported by Senator Cruz …
Reported by Mr. Cruz, with an amendment
Passed Senate (inferred from es version)
Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. …
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Covered digital advertising platforms (as defined), Covered digital advertising platforms (more than 100,000,000 unique monthly users), Covered digital advertising platforms with more than 100 million unique monthly users
SAMHSA-approved state and local mental health resources
People seeking suicide, substance-abuse, eating-disorder, or social-isolation resources
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "samhsa"
- → Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
- "commission"
- → Federal Trade Commission
- "covered_digital_advertising_platform"
- → Digital advertising platform with more than 100 million unique monthly users
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
An ad-selling social media platform, search engine, public-facing website, online service, or application with more than 100 million unique monthly users.
A free internet ad promoting accessible mental, behavioral, or physical health resources, including SAMHSA-approved state, local, or regional resources for self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, behavioral addiction, and social isolation.
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