[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5788 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5788
To authorize the Attorney General to make grants for the creation and
operation of veterans response teams within law enforcement agencies,
and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 28, 2021
Ms. Salazar (for herself, Mr. Correa, Mr. Baird, Mrs. Miller-Meeks, Mr.
Sessions, Mr. Carl, Mrs. Spartz, Ms. Sherrill, Mr. Wenstrup, Mr.
Gonzalez of Ohio, Mr. Budd, Mr. C. Scott Franklin of Florida, Mr.
Gibbs, Mrs. Kim of California, Ms. Newman, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Joyce of
Ohio, Mr. Cole, Mr. Suozzi, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Johnson of Ohio, Mr. Hudson,
Mr. Meijer, Mr. Young, Mr. Davidson, Mr. Weber of Texas, Ms. Tenney,
Mr. Owens, Mr. Cawthorn, Mr. Kelly of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Costa)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To authorize the Attorney General to make grants for the creation and
operation of veterans response teams within law enforcement agencies,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Supporting Every at-Risk Veteran In
Critical Emergencies Act of 2021'' or the ``SERVICE Act of 2021''.
SEC. 2. VETERAN RESPONSE TEAM PILOT PROGRAM.
(a) Grant Authorization.--The Attorney General, acting through the
Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, is
authorized to operate a pilot program to make grants to States, units
of local government, and Indian Tribal governments, to support the
creation and operation of veterans response teams in the law
enforcement agencies of the jurisdiction, in accordance with subsection
(b).
(b) Grants To Develop Veterans Response Teams.--
(1) Activities of a veterans response team.--A veterans
response team may include a program that does the following:
(A) Provides law enforcement officers who are
veterans with a pin that identifies the department of
the Armed Forces in which the officer served, which the
officer may wear while on duty.
(B) Uses the Veterans Re-Entry Search Service of
the Department of Veterans Affairs;
(C) Establishes a system of communication and
information sharing with the Department of Veterans
Affairs and other community resource agencies.
(D) Establishes a working relationship with the
Veterans Justice Outreach specialist.
(E) Establishes a working relationship with the
local justice system and veterans court, if applicable,
including identifying veterans upon entry into the
court system and local detention facility, with
notification to the local Department of Veterans
Affairs office for confirmation and appropriate
services.
(F) Provides training and education for law
enforcement officers on mental health issues related to
military service, such as post-traumatic stress
disorder, traumatic brain injury, depression, and
anxiety.
(G) Meets regularly to discuss issues veterans are
facing in the community, as well as suitable responses.
(H) Organizes coordinated and trained teams of
first responders to respond 24 hours per day, and 7
days per week, on a volunteer basis, to calls for
assistance involving a veteran in crisis.
(I) Develops a plan to--
(i) measure the success of veteran response
teams; and
(ii) track nationwide best practices on how
veterans response teams provide law enforcement
officers with essential information during and
following veteran-involved incidents to which
veterans response teams respond.
(J) Offers veterans who have come into contact with
the veterans response team the opportunity to maintain
ongoing contact with the veterans response team.
(2) Creation, hiring, and training of veterans response
team.--The creation of a veterans response team within a law
enforcement agency pursuant to a grant under this section may
include doing the following:
(A) Identifying a law enforcement officer in the
law enforcement agency who is passionate about and
committed to forming a veterans response team, and will
serve as the leader of such team.
(B) Identifying other law enforcement officers in
the law enforcement agency who are interested and
willing to participate on the veterans response team.
(C) Identifying and inviting interested community
members to join the veterans response team, which may
include members of veteran resource organizations, the
local office of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the
regional veterans justice outreach program, other law
enforcement agencies, fire and emergency medical
services departments, hospitals, social work agencies,
other entities within the justice system, nonprofit
organizations, and other appropriate entities.
(D) Immersing veterans response team members in the
veteran community by attending veterans events,
responding to incidents involving veterans, as
described in paragraph (1)(I), and making public
appearances to further engage with veterans.
(E) Providing training on veterans experiencing
crisis for individuals involved with the veterans
response team, and for other law enforcement officers
who are likely to come in contact with veterans.
(c) Funding.--There is authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000 to
carry out this section for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026.
(d) Termination.--The authority under this section shall terminate
on the date that is 5 years after the date of the enactment of this
section.
(e) Reporting.--The Attorney General shall provide a report to
Congress on the progress of the pilot program that includes the
following:
(1) The number of applicants.
(2) The number of grants awarded.
(3) The average grant amount sought by an applicant.
(4) The average amount of a grant awarded.
(5) Any other information that the Attorney General
determines to be appropriate.
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