[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 130 (Wednesday, August 3, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3911-S3912]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER SUPPORT ACT

  Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, this week, the U.S. Senate acted, 
unanimously, to honor our Nation's dedicated law enforcement officers, 
firefighters, and emergency responders by passing the Public Safety 
Officer Support Act, known as PSOSA.
  I was proud to author the bipartisan Public Safety Officer Support 
Act and want to thank Senator Cornyn and Senate Judiciary Committee 
Chairman Durbin for their steadfast leadership and hard work in helping 
pass this vital legislation that seeks to modernize the Public Safety 
Officers' Benefits Program by recognizing that, when a public safety 
officer dies by suicide, there should be a rebuttable presumption that 
the loss should be designated as a line of duty death.
  I look forward to President Joe Biden signing the bipartisan Public 
Safety Officer Support Act into law and remain confident in the U.S. 
Department of Justice's readiness to effectively implement this 
important new law. My confidence is rooted in the Department's 
productive engagement and helpful technical assistance that was 
provided throughout the development of the final version of PSOSA.
  Of course, the Public Safety Officer Support Act would never have 
passed without the steadfast support and dedication of a wide range of 
organizations, such as the Fraternal Order of Police, National 
Association of Police Organizations, Federal Law Enforcement Officers 
Association, Sergeants Benevolent Association NYPD, National 
Association of Attorneys General, National District Attorneys 
Association, Major County Sheriffs Association, National Sheriffs 
Association, National Border Patrol Council, United States Capitol 
Police Labor Committee, BLUE H.E.L.P., The Wounded Blue, American 
Psychological Association, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 
International Union of Police Associations, International Association 
of Chiefs of Police, National Prison Council, National Narcotics 
Officers Associations' Coalition, American Federation of State, County 
and Municipal Employees, National Association for Children's Behavioral 
Health, International Society for Psychiatric Nurses, Meadows Mental 
Health Policy Institute, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, SMART 
Recovery, Kennedy Forum, Inseparable, National Council for Mental 
Wellbeing, National Association for Rural Mental Health, American 
Mental Health Counselors Association, National Association of Social 
Workers, Postpartum Support International, National Association of 
State and Mental Health Program Directors, American Association for 
Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work, and the Association for 
Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
  This impressive array of support for PSOSA reflects the importance 
and urgency of fixing a specific flaw in the Public Safety Officers' 
Benefits Program. Under current law, despite public safety officers 
facing a heightened risk for developing posttraumatic stress and having 
trauma-induced suicides, family member survivors of police officers and 
firefighters that commit suicide are excluded from the program. This 
means that surviving families are often left without any Federal 
support, State and local survivor annuities, or continued access to 
their loved ones' health insurance.
  Comparatively, the U.S. Armed Forces recognizes that servicemember 
suicides are line-of-duty deaths. More than 90 percent of the 1,107 
Active-Duty Army suicides between 2005 and 2012 were determined to be 
in the line of duty. Just like our servicemembers, our first responders 
should be recognized and supported for the mental distress they endure 
while protecting our communities and responding to emergencies. That 
includes supporting their surviving families after they are gone.
  Once signed into law and implemented, the bipartisan Public Safety 
Officer Support Act will finally provide grieving families the benefits 
their loved ones earned while serving their communities as public 
safety officers and, equally important, help us eliminate the harmful 
stigma and infliction of emotional distress and pain on survivors that 
stems from misguided and outdated policies that refuse to designate 
public safety officer suicides as line of duty deaths.
  Now, I want to be clear. Ensuring that public safety officer suicides 
are considered line of duty deaths for purposes of participating in the 
Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program is about honoring a fallen 
police officer's or firefighter's life of service. It is about honoring 
these Americans and caring for their families, just as we do when a 
public safety officer dies from heart disease or COVID in the line of 
duty.
  Simply put, our bipartisan law will ensure surviving families of 
fallen public safety officers receive the support their loved ones 
earned through a life of service.
  We are seeking to ensure eligibility for the Public Safety Officers' 
Benefits Program no longer allows the manner of death to negate a 
career devoted to public service and serving one's community. And that 
is why it is also important to emphasize that a presumption of a line 
of duty death is not an absolute.
  Just as committing suicide should not deny a public safety officer 
and their family a line-of-duty death designation, in and of itself, 
taking one's life would not entitle a disgraced public safety officer 
who violated their oath of office to receive a Public Safety Officers' 
Benefits Program benefit.
  It is our intent that the U.S. Department of Justice will review and 
take into account the potential contributing factors to the officer or 
firefighters' death or injury and consult the agency investigating the 
cause and manner of death and the agency of the police officer or 
firefighter, just as the Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance 
Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program Office is empowered to do in 
all other claims submitted to the program.
  Moving forward, I hope enactment of the Public Safety Officer Support 
Act inspires the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and 
other State and local law enforcement memorials to update their 
respective line-of-duty death criteria to match the Public Safety 
Officers' Benefits Program. After all, our Nation's support of first 
responder families is particularly critical following the tragic loss 
of a police officer, a firefighter, or an emergency responder, and 
these grieving families deserve to be included among the families of 
the fallen.
  In closing, I want to take a moment to recognize the incredible 
courage, resilience, and strength of the late Officer Jeffrey Smith's 
widow, Erin Smith,

[[Page S3912]]

and his parents, Richard and Wendy Smith. Their collective 
determination and commitment to fixing an unjust system to prevent 
future families of the fallen from having to experience the emotional 
pain and financial harm resulting from the denial of a line-of-duty 
death designation, played a pivotal role in the development and passage 
of the Public Safety Officer Support Act.
  I commend Erin, Richard and Wendy Smith for honoring the service of 
their loved one and hope that Officer Smith's lasting legacy of 
spurring a long-needed change in the law provides them with comfort and 
confidence that his tragic loss was not in vain.

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