Millions of dollars in federal funding is set to expire next year for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It launched in 2022 as an easy-to-remember three-digit number for people experiencing a mental health crisis anywhere in the U.S. to call and be connected with a counselor.

The adoption of a shortcut to reach the suicide prevention hotline — which could previously only be contacted using a 10-digit number — and the accompanying public awareness campaign led to a surge in calls.

Jennifer Battle is the vice president of community access and engagement at the Harris Center for Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, which operates one of five 988 call centers in Texas.

"We’ve been watching the data over the last three years, and we know that data continues to increase around people who are aware of the number, people who have used it and will call back, people who have used it and will talk to their friends and family and neighbors about it, and it will continue to grow," Battle said.

In October 2025, the most recent month for which data is available, Texas 988 call centers received more than 26,000 calls.

Mental health professionals, advocates and lawmakers say they're optimistic there will be ways to fill the gap in funding and continue the suicide prevention hotline's vital services. But exactly how the 988 line will be funded remains to be seen.

"We’ve been kicking the can down the street for adequate community-based mental health infrastructure investment since the ’50s," said Dr. Thomas Kim, a psychiatrist and advocate with the Texas Medical Association. "Is now the time? I sure hope so, because ultimately, our most precious resource isn’t oil or gas. It isn’t AI. It’s people, and we need to kind of care for one another."

Alternate funding sources

In Texas, the 988 Lifeline is currently funded by a combination of federal grants, but is operated by the state.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) distributes two grants that sustain the 988 Lifeline in Texas: the Mental Health Block Grant (MHBG) and the 988 State and Territory Improvement Award. Together, they provide just over $19 million.

"It’s very, very difficult to get money out of the Legislature, and so I had to find ways to look or open it up to grants and that sort of thing," he said. "So even though there had been federal money used to launch this [988], it’s going to be running out next year. And so that’s why it was important for me to look for ways to fund it."

The trust fund bill includes language that would allow private individuals, foundations or nonprofits to contribute to the fund, although the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the fund, said it hasn't received any contributions yet.

“Bipartisan effort”

Texas state Rep. Brooks Landgraf, a Republican from Odessa, who sponsored the House version of the bill, struck a more optimistic tone about the future.

"This certainly has been a bipartisan effort, and I do think that there will be support moving forward among lawmakers to build on the success that we achieved this year," he said. "I am very proud that this legislation reflects the very best of how the Legislature can operate, where we can set politics aside and listen to the people that we serve and provide a solution that saves lives in every corner of the state."

Many advocates argue that a telecom fee, like the ones used in states such as Washington and Nevada, is the most sustainable way to support 988 in the long term. These fees, added to customers’ phone bills each month, range from $0.08 to $0.60 per line in the 13 states that currently have one. A similar structure is used to fund other services, including 911.

"Even though we’re excited about the trust fund creation, we do believe that the telecom fee will be essential to ease access to care," said Julia Hewitt, the board chair for Americans for Suicide Prevention's South Texas chapter.

Renae Tomczak, president and CEO of Mental Health America Greater Houston, agreed, saying the telecom fee makes "the most sense."

Kim, the advocate with the Texas Medical Association, isn't completely sold on the telecom fee, but says he is certain mental health initiatives in the state need more resources.

"So I think these mechanisms do work," he said. "I sometimes worry about the fairness of fees. Because I just want to make sure that we’re not disproportionately just adding more, especially in the current economic climate."

While lawmakers and advocates work to create a secure financial future for the 988 Lifeline in Texas, the call center employees continue their lifesaving work.

"We have never, other than a brief 48-hour period after Hurricane Ike [in 2008], not answered calls, and that is 100% my mission," said Battle, with the Harris Center. "We do whatever it takes to get those calls answered during disasters, both human-made and man-made. So, fiscal disasters or weather disasters, we have a responsibility to the community."

Battle remains confident the impact of 988 speaks for itself.

"I believe we have really powerful allies on both sides of the aisle," she said. "You can’t really argue about 988; it is what it is, and the proof is in the pudding."

The 988 State and Territory Improvement Award, which accounts for $10.8 million of that total, will expire at the end of this fiscal year, on Sept. 29, 2026.

It's unclear what steps, if any, Congress might take to extend federal funding for 988. Houston Public Media reached out to several Houston-area congressional representatives and Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas.

Houston-area Democratic U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher was the only one to respond. She took aim at the Trump administration's purge of the federal workforce and pledged to fight to "protect 9-8-8 and all the essential services that people in Texas' Seventh Congressional District and people across the country rely on."

SAMHSA, a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is also undergoing a dramatic restructuring. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, nearly two-thirds of SAMHSA's workforce has been laid off since January. In March, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that SAMHSA, along with several other public health agencies, would be consolidated into a new federal agency, the Administration for Healthy America.

It remains to be seen whether the Administration for Healthy America will create new sources of federal grant funding for the 988 Lifeline or if Texas lawmakers will appropriate funds by September of next year. HHS declined to comment for this story.

In a special session this summer, the Texas Legislature took the first steps to ensure 988's future financial stability by establishing the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Trust Fund.

The legislature has not yet allocated any money for the fund, akin to opening a savings account without making a deposit.

Texas state Sen. Jose Menendez, a Democrat from San Antonio, was one of the trust fund bill's primary sponsors.

View this article in Houston Public Media.