[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6943 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        H.R.6943

                    One Hundred Seventeenth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

           Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,
          the third day of January, two thousand and twenty-two


                                 An Act


 
   To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to 
  authorize public safety officer death benefits to officers suffering 
 from post-traumatic stress disorder or acute stress disorder, 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 ``Public Safety Officer Support Act of 
2022''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
    Congress finds the following:
        (1) Every day, public safety officers, including police 
    officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and others, 
    work to maintain the safety, health, and well-being of the 
    communities they serve.
        (2) This means public safety officers are routinely called to 
    respond to stressful and potentially traumatic situations, often 
    putting their own lives in danger.
        (3) This work not only puts public safety officers at-risk for 
    experiencing harm, serious injury, and cumulative and acute trauma, 
    but also places them at up to 25.6 times higher risk for developing 
    post-traumatic stress disorder when compared to individuals without 
    such experiences.
        (4) Psychological evidence indicates that law enforcement 
    officers experience significant job-related stressors and exposures 
    that may confer increased risk for mental health morbidities (such 
    as post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal thoughts, ideation, 
    intents, and behaviors) and hastened mortality.
        (5) Public safety officers often do not have the resources or 
    support they need, leaving them at higher risk for long-term mental 
    health consequences.
        (6) Whereas, although the Department of Defense already 
    considers servicemember suicides to be line-of-duty deaths and 
    provides Federal support to eligible surviving families, the 
    Federal Government does not recognize public safety officer 
    suicides as deaths in the line of duty.
        (7) In 2017, the Department of Justice approved 481 claims 
    under the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program under subpart 1 
    of part L of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 
    Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10281 et seq.), but not one of them for the 
    more than 240 public safety officers who died by suicide that year.
        (8) Public safety officers who have died or are disabled as a 
    result of suicide or post-traumatic stress disorder do not qualify 
    for the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program, despite the fact 
    that public safety officers are more likely to die by suicide than 
    from any other line-of-duty cause of death.
SEC. 3. PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER DEATH BENEFITS FOR POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS 
DISORDER, ACUTE STRESS DISORDER, OR TRAUMA AND STRESS RELATED 
DISORDERS.
    (a) In General.--Section 1201 of title I of the Omnibus Crime 
Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10281) is amended by 
adding at the end the following:
    ``(o) Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Acute Stress Disorder, or 
Trauma and Stress Related Disorders.--
        ``(1) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(A) Mass casualty event.--The term `mass casualty event' 
        means an incident resulting in casualties to not fewer than 3 
        victims, including--
                ``(i) an incident that exceeds the normal resources for 
            emergency response available in the jurisdiction where the 
            incident takes place; and
                ``(ii) an incident that results in a sudden and timely 
            surge of injured individuals necessitating emergency 
            services.
            ``(B) Mass fatality event.--The term `mass fatality event' 
        means an incident resulting in the fatalities of not fewer than 
        3 individuals at 1 or more locations close to one another with 
        a common cause.
            ``(C) Mass shooting.--The term `mass shooting' means a 
        multiple homicide incident in which not fewer than 3 victims 
        are killed--
                ``(i) with a firearm;
                ``(ii) during one event; and
                ``(iii) in one or more locations in close proximity.
            ``(D) Exposed.--The term `exposed' includes--
                ``(i) directly experiencing or witnessing an event; or
                ``(ii) being subjected, in an intense way, to aversive 
            consequences of the event (including a public safety 
            officer collecting human remains).
            ``(E) Traumatic event.--The term `traumatic event' means, 
        in the case of a public safety officer exposed to an event, an 
        event that is--
                ``(i) a homicide, suicide, or the violent or gruesome 
            death of another individual (including such a death 
            resulting from a mass casualty event, mass fatality event, 
            or mass shooting);
                ``(ii) a harrowing circumstance posing an extraordinary 
            and significant danger or threat to the life of or of 
            serious bodily harm to any individual (including such a 
            circumstance as a mass casualty event, mass fatality event, 
            or mass shooting); or
                ``(iii) an act of criminal sexual violence committed 
            against any individual.
        ``(2) Personal injury sustained in line of duty.--As determined 
    by the Bureau--
            ``(A) post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress 
        disorder, or trauma and stress related disorders suffered by a 
        public safety officer and diagnosed by a licensed medical or 
        mental health professional, shall be presumed to constitute a 
        personal injury within the meaning of subsection (a), sustained 
        in the line of duty by the officer, if the officer was exposed, 
        while on duty, to one or more traumatic events and such 
        exposure was a substantial factor in the disorder;
            ``(B) post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress 
        disorder, or trauma and stress related disorders, suffered by a 
        public safety officer who has contacted or attempted to contact 
        the employee assistance program of the agency or entity that 
        the officer serves, a licensed medical or mental health 
        professional, suicide prevention services, or another mental 
        health assistance service in order to receive help, treatment, 
        or diagnosis for post-traumatic stress disorder or acute stress 
        disorder, shall be presumed to constitute a personal injury 
        within the meaning of subsection (a), sustained in the line of 
        duty by the officer, if the officer, was exposed, while on 
        duty, to one or more traumatic events and such exposure was a 
        substantial factor in the disorder; and
            ``(C) post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress 
        disorder, or trauma and stress related disorders, suffered by a 
        public safety officer who was exposed, while on duty, to one or 
        more traumatic events shall be presumed to constitute a 
        personal injury within the meaning of subsection (a), sustained 
        in the line of duty by the officer if such exposure was a 
        substantial factor in the disorder.
        ``(3) Presumption of death or total disability.--A public 
    safety officer shall be presumed to have died or become permanently 
    and totally disabled (within the meaning of subsection (a) or (b)) 
    as the direct and proximate result of a personal injury sustained 
    in the line of duty, if (as determined by the Bureau) the officer 
    either--
            ``(A) took an action, which action was intended to bring 
        about the officer's death and directly and proximately resulted 
        in such officer's death or permanent and total disability and 
        exposure, while on duty, to one or more traumatic events was a 
        substantial factor in the action taken by the officer; or
            ``(B) took an action within 45 days of the end of exposure, 
        while on duty, to a traumatic event, which action was intended 
        to bring about the officer's death and directly and proximately 
        resulted in such officer's death or permanent and total 
        disability, if such action was not inconsistent with a 
        psychiatric disorder.
        ``(4) Applicability of limitations on benefits.--
            ``(A) Intentional actions.--Section 1202(a)(1) shall not 
        apply to any claim for a benefit under this part that is 
        payable in accordance with this subsection.
            ``(B) Substance use.--Section 1202(a)(2) shall not preclude 
        the payment of a benefit under this part if the benefit is 
        otherwise payable in accordance with this subsection.''.
    (b) Retroactive Applicability.--
        (1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), the 
    amendments made by this section shall--
            (A) take effect on the date of enactment of this Act; and
            (B) apply to any matter pending, before the Bureau of 
        Justice Assistance or otherwise, on the date of enactment of 
        this Act, or filed (consistent with pre-existing effective 
        dates) or accruing after that date.
        (2) Exceptions.--The amendments made by this section shall 
    apply to any action taken by a public safety officer described in 
    paragraph (3) of section 1201(o) of title I of the Omnibus Crime 
    Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (as added by this Act) that 
    occurred on or after January 1, 2019.
SEC. 4. TECHNICAL FIXES.
    (a) Subpoena Power; Employment of Hearing Officers; Authority to 
Hold Hearings.--Section 806 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and 
Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10225) is amended--
        (1) in the first sentence--
            (A) by striking ``The'' and all that follows through 
        ``Assistance'' and inserting ``The Assistant Attorney General, 
        the Bureau of Justice Assistance'';
            (B) by striking ``by the Attorney General'';
            (C) by striking ``Code)'' and inserting ``Code (without 
        regard to the days limitation prescribed therein), but shall, 
        in no event, be understood to be (or to have the authority of) 
        officers of the United States)'';
            (D) by striking ``such hearing examiners or administrative 
        law judges'' and inserting ``or administrative law judges''; 
        and
            (E) by striking ``necessary to carry out their respective 
        powers and duties under this title'' and inserting the 
        following: ``necessary or convenient to assist them in carrying 
        out their respective powers and duties under any law 
        administered by or under the Office''; and
        (2) in the second sentence--
            (A) by striking ``The'' and all that follows through 
        ``Assistance'' and inserting ``The Assistant Attorney General, 
        the Bureau of Justice Assistance'';
            (B) by striking ``or any'' and inserting ``, or (subject to 
        such limitations as the appointing authority may, in its sole 
        discretion, impose from time to time) any'';
            (C) by inserting a comma after ``thereby''; and
            (D) by striking ``examinations and'' and inserting 
        ``examinations, and''.
    (b) Definitions.--Section 1204 of title I of the Omnibus Crime 
Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10284) is amended--
        (1) in paragraph (11), by striking ``and'' at the end;
        (2) in paragraph (12)(B), strike the period at the end and 
    insert a semicolon; and
        (3) in paragraph (14), by redesignating the second subparagraph 
    (F) as subparagraph (G).
SEC. 5. GAO REPORT.
    Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a 
report that details benefits issued pursuant to subsection (o) of 
section 1201 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 
Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10281), as added by section 3, and includes any 
recommendations to improve that subsection.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.