H.R. 8122 — 9–8–8 Connect Act

This section establishes a grant program, to be administered by the Secretary acting through the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, under which eligible crisis centers that are members of the national suicide prevention lifeline network (coordinated under section 520E–3(b)(1), i.e., the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) may receive funding to provide follow-up services—such as well-being check-ins, outreach for service engagement, collaboration with family and caregivers, and care referrals—to individuals who received suicide prevention or crisis intervention services (e.g., hotline callers at risk of suicide or mental health crisis, mobile crisis team respondents, or emergency department visitors). The Secretary must select grantees based on relative needs (including capacity and service gaps) and provide them technical assistance on best practices, with $30 million authorized for FY2027 (to remain available until expended).

This section directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to promulgate, not later than 270 days after enactment, regulations requiring providers of commercial mobile service (i.e., wireless carriers) to transmit all calls and texts to 9–8–8—including those originating from non-service-initialized handsets using a compliant radio frequency protocol—with compliance required not later than one year after promulgation. (9–8–8 is the universal telephone number for the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system.) This section also amends Section 721 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 623)—which requires multi-line telephone systems (MLTS, e.g., in hotels and offices) to enable direct dialing to 9–1–1 without prefixes and related notifications—by inserting references to 9–8–8 in the section heading and subsections (a) and (b), with applicability to actions occurring on or after two years after enactment (except for MLTS installed prior to that date that cannot comply without hardware or software upgrades).