Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I rise to introduce the bipartisan Local 9-8-8 Response Act. This legislation would boost our continued efforts to improve access to and accuracy of mental health crisis response through the 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Lifeline.

In an effort to ensure a quick response by a mental health professional for those in crisis, this legislation requires calls and messages to the lifeline to be routed by the call center geographically nearest to the caller rather than by area code. This eliminates an unnecessary handoff, while still protecting user privacy, so users can receive the care they need as quickly and safely as possible.

This bill also requires carriers to allow calls and texts to the 9-8- 8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline even if the plan is inactive or the carrier is experiencing service interruptions or failures, just as is done currently with 9-1-1 calls. Further, this bill requires multiline systems like hotel and office phones to support the direct dialing of 9-8-8 rather than requiring a caller to dial 9 or another number before dialing 9-8-8.

Significant progress has been made in increasing access to quality mental health care in America. The 9-8-8 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline has been critical for supporting Americans in crisis. However, the current system routes you to a call center based on your area code rather than where you are actually calling from. This is a huge problem if a call center needs to send a mental health response team to help a caller that might be thousands of miles away in another city.

I would like to thank Senator Tillis for introducing this important legislation with me. I would also like to thank Congressman Cardenas for leading this legislation in the House of Representatives, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact the Local 9-8-8 Response Act as soon as possible.

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