House Commerce Republicans Press SAMHSA on 988 Hotline Spending, Outage
House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Health Subcommittee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Morgan Griffith, R-Va., sought information from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Wednesday on its implementation of the 988 National…
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Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The GOP leaders noted in a letter to SAMHSA Administrator Miriam Delphin-Rittmon that the agency got $282 million in federal funding for 988 during FY 2022, but “the national suicide hotline crashed late last year.” Rodgers and the other lawmakers want SAMHSA to give them information by April 18 on why it sought additional 988 funding after having spent an initial $105 million on the hotline by December 2021 and why the Dec. 1 outage of the system happened (see 2301260041) “after all the financial support.” The House Commerce Committee unanimously advanced the 9-8-8 Lifeline Cybersecurity Responsibility Act (HR-498) in March in response to the outage. It would amend the 2020 National Suicide Hotline Designation Act to require improved coordination and reporting on potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the 9-8-8 lifeline, with the goal of mitigating future cyberattacks and preventing disruption of services. SAMHSA didn’t comment.