I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1902
To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to improve the
detection, prevention, and treatment of mental health issues among public
safety officers, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH6, 2025
Mr. B
ERA(for himself, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. MRVAN, Ms. NORTON, Ms.
D
EANof Pennsylvania, Ms. WASSERMANSCHULTZ, Ms. CHU, Mr. HARD-
ERof California, Mr. POCAN, Mrs. WATSONCOLEMAN, Mr. MAGAZINER,
Mr. V
ANDREW, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. LYNCH, Mr. KENNEDYof New
York, Mr. C
ASTEN, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. BACON, Mr. LATIMER, Ms. TITUS,
Mr. S
MITHof Washington, Mr. THANEDAR, Ms. BROWN, and Mr.
C
ARBAJAL) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on
Science, Space, and Technology, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services
to improve the detection, prevention, and treatment of
mental health issues among public safety officers, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Helping Emergency 2
Responders Overcome Act’’ or the ‘‘HERO Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. DATA SYSTEM TO CAPTURE NATIONAL PUBLIC 4
SAFETY OFFICER SUICIDE INCIDENCE. 5
The Public Health Service Act is amended by insert-6
ing after section 317V of such Act (42 U.S.C. 247b–24) 7
the following: 8
‘‘SEC. 317W. DATA SYSTEM TO CAPTURE NATIONAL PUBLIC 9
SAFETY OFFICER SUICIDE INCIDENCE. 10
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary, in coordination 11
with the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and 12
Prevention and other agencies as the Secretary determines 13
appropriate, may— 14
‘‘(1) develop and maintain a data system, to be 15
known as the Public Safety Officer Suicide Report-16
ing System, for the purposes of— 17
‘‘(A) collecting data on the suicide inci-18
dence among public safety officers; and 19
‘‘(B) facilitating the study of successful 20
interventions to reduce suicide among public 21
safety officers; and 22
‘‘(2) integrate such system into the National 23
Violent Death Reporting System, so long as the Sec-24
retary determines such integration to be consistent 25
with the purposes described in paragraph (1). 26
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‘‘(b) DATACOLLECTION.—In collecting data for the 1
Public Safety Officer Suicide Reporting System, the Sec-2
retary shall, at a minimum, collect the following informa-3
tion: 4
‘‘(1) The total number of suicides in the United 5
States among all public safety officers in a given cal-6
endar year. 7
‘‘(2) Suicide rates for public safety officers in 8
a given calendar year, disaggregated by— 9
‘‘(A) age and gender of the public safety 10
officer; 11
‘‘(B) State; 12
‘‘(C) occupation; including both the indi-13
vidual’s role in their public safety agency and 14
their primary occupation in the case of volun-15
teer public safety officers; 16
‘‘(D) where available, the status of the 17
public safety officer as volunteer, paid-on-call, 18
or career; and 19
‘‘(E) status of the public safety officer as 20
active or retired. 21
‘‘(c) C
ONSULTATION DURINGDEVELOPMENT.—In 22
developing the Public Safety Officer Suicide Reporting 23
System, the Secretary shall consult with non-Federal ex-24
perts to determine the best means to collect data regard-25
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ing suicide incidence in a safe, sensitive, anonymous, and 1
effective manner. Such non-Federal experts shall include, 2
as appropriate, the following: 3
‘‘(1) Public health experts with experience in 4
developing and maintaining suicide registries. 5
‘‘(2) Organizations that track suicide among 6
public safety officers. 7
‘‘(3) Mental health experts with experience in 8
studying suicide and other profession-related trau-9
matic stress. 10
‘‘(4) Clinicians with experience in diagnosing 11
and treating mental health issues. 12
‘‘(5) Active and retired volunteer, paid-on-call, 13
and career public safety officers. 14
‘‘(6) Relevant national police, and fire and 15
emergency medical services, organizations. 16
‘‘(d) D
ATAPRIVACY ANDSECURITY.—In developing 17
and maintaining the Public Safety Officer Suicide Report-18
ing System, the Secretary shall ensure that all applicable 19
Federal privacy and security protections are followed to 20
ensure that— 21
‘‘(1) the confidentiality and anonymity of sui-22
cide victims and their families are protected, includ-23
ing so as to ensure that data cannot be used to deny 24
benefits; and 25
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‘‘(2) data is sufficiently secure to prevent unau-1
thorized access. 2
‘‘(e) R
EPORTING.— 3
‘‘(1) A
NNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 2 years 4
after the date of enactment of the Helping Emer-5
gency Responders Overcome Act, and biannually 6
thereafter, the Secretary shall submit a report to the 7
Congress on the suicide incidence among public safe-8
ty officers. Each such report shall— 9
‘‘(A) include the number and rate of such 10
suicide incidence, disaggregated by age, gender, 11
and State of employment; 12
‘‘(B) identify characteristics and contrib-13
uting circumstances for suicide among public 14
safety officers; 15
‘‘(C) disaggregate rates of suicide by— 16
‘‘(i) occupation; 17
‘‘(ii) status as volunteer, paid-on-call, 18
or career; and 19
‘‘(iii) status as active or retired; 20
‘‘(D) include recommendations for further 21
study regarding the suicide incidence among 22
public safety officers; 23
‘‘(E) specify in detail, if found, any obsta-24
cles in collecting suicide rates for volunteers 25
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and include recommended improvements to 1
overcome such obstacles; 2
‘‘(F) identify options for interventions to 3
reduce suicide among public safety officers; and 4
‘‘(G) describe procedures to ensure the 5
confidentiality and anonymity of suicide victims 6
and their families, as described in subsection 7
(d)(1). 8
‘‘(2) P
UBLIC AVAILABILITY.—Upon the submis-9
sion of each report to the Congress under paragraph 10
(1), the Secretary shall make the full report publicly 11
available on the website of the Centers for Disease 12
Control and Prevention. 13
‘‘(f) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘public 14
safety officer’ means— 15
‘‘(1) a public safety officer, as defined in sec-16
tion 1204 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 17
Streets Act of 1968; or 18
‘‘(2) a public safety telecommunicator, as de-19
scribed in detailed occupation 43–5031 in the Stand-20
ard Occupational Classification Manual of the Office 21
of Management and Budget (2018). 22
‘‘(g) P
ROHIBITEDUSE OFINFORMATION.—Notwith-23
standing any other provision of law, if an individual is 24
identified as deceased based on information contained in 25
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the Public Safety Officer Suicide Reporting System, such 1
information may not be used to deny or rescind life insur-2
ance payments or other benefits to a survivor of the de-3
ceased individual.’’. 4
SEC. 3. PEER-SUPPORT BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND 5
WELLNESS PROGRAMS WITHIN FIRE DEPART-6
MENTS AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE 7
AGENCIES. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Part B of title III of the Public 9
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 243 et seq.) is amended 10
by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘SEC. 320C. PEER-SUPPORT BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND 12
WELLNESS PROGRAMS WITHIN FIRE DEPART-13
MENTS AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE 14
AGENCIES. 15
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary may award grants 16
to eligible entities for the purpose of establishing or en-17
hancing peer-support behavioral health and wellness pro-18
grams within fire departments and emergency medical 19
services agencies. 20
‘‘(b) P
ROGRAMDESCRIPTION.—A peer-support be-21
havioral health and wellness program funded under this 22
section shall— 23
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‘‘(1) use career and volunteer members of fire 1
departments or emergency medical services agencies 2
to serve as peer counselors; 3
‘‘(2) provide training to members of career, vol-4
unteer, and combination fire departments or emer-5
gency medical service agencies to serve as such peer 6
counselors; 7
‘‘(3) purchase materials to be used exclusively 8
to provide such training; and 9
‘‘(4) disseminate such information and mate-10
rials as are necessary to conduct the program. 11
‘‘(c) D
EFINITION.—In this section: 12
‘‘(1) The term ‘eligible entity’ means a non-13
profit organization with expertise and experience 14
with respect to the health and life safety of members 15
of fire and emergency medical services agencies. 16
‘‘(2) The term ‘member’— 17
‘‘(A) with respect to an emergency medical 18
services agency, means an employee, regardless 19
of rank or whether the employee receives com-20
pensation (as defined in section 1204(7) of the 21
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 22
1968); and 23
‘‘(B) with respect to a fire department, 24
means any employee, regardless of rank or 25
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whether the employee receives compensation, of 1
a Federal, State, Tribal, or local fire depart-2
ment who is responsible for responding to calls 3
for emergency service.’’. 4
(b) T
ECHNICALCORRECTION.—Effective as if in-5
cluded in the enactment of the Children’s Health Act of 6
2000 (Public Law 106–310), the amendment instruction 7
in section 1603 of such Act is amended by striking ‘‘Part 8
B of the Public Health Service Act’’ and inserting ‘‘Part 9
B of title III of the Public Health Service Act’’. 10
SEC. 4. HEALTH CARE PROVIDER BEHAVIORAL HEALTH 11
AND WELLNESS PROGRAMS. 12
Part B of title III of the Public Health Service Act 13
(42 U.S.C. 243 et seq.), as amended by section 3, is fur-14
ther amended by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘SEC. 320D. HEALTH CARE PROVIDER BEHAVIORAL 16
HEALTH AND WELLNESS PROGRAMS. 17
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary may award grants 18
to eligible entities for the purpose of establishing or en-19
hancing behavioral health and wellness programs for 20
health care providers. 21
‘‘(b) P
ROGRAMDESCRIPTION.—A behavioral health 22
and wellness program funded under this section shall— 23
‘‘(1) provide confidential support services for 24
health care providers to help handle stressful or 25
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traumatic patient-related events, including coun-1
seling services and wellness seminars; 2
‘‘(2) provide training to health care providers to 3
serve as peer counselors to other health care pro-4
viders; 5
‘‘(3) purchase materials to be used exclusively 6
to provide such training; and 7
‘‘(4) disseminate such information and mate-8
rials as are necessary to conduct such training and 9
provide such peer counseling. 10
‘‘(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section, the term ‘eligible 11
entity’ means a hospital, including a critical access hos-12
pital (as defined in section 1861(mm)(1) of the Social Se-13
curity Act) or a disproportionate share hospital (as defined 14
in section 1923(a)(1)(A) of such Act), a Federally-quali-15
fied health center (as defined in section 1905(1)(2)(B) of 16
such Act), or any other health care facility.’’. 17
SEC. 5. DEVELOPMENT OF RESOURCES FOR EDUCATING 18
MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS ABOUT 19
TREATING FIRE FIGHTERS AND EMERGENCY 20
MEDICAL SERVICES PERSONNEL. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator of the United 22
States Fire Administration, in consultation with the Sec-23
retary of Health and Human Services, shall develop and 24
make publicly available resources that may be used by the 25
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Federal Government and other entities to educate mental 1
health professionals about— 2
(1) the culture of Federal, State, Tribal, and 3
local career, volunteer, and combination fire depart-4
ments and emergency medical services agencies; 5
(2) the different stressors experienced by fire-6
fighters and emergency medical services personnel, 7
supervisory firefighters and emergency medical serv-8
ices personnel, and chief officers of fire departments 9
and emergency medical services agencies; 10
(3) challenges encountered by retired fire-11
fighters and emergency medical services personnel; 12
and 13
(4) evidence-based therapies for mental health 14
issues common to firefighters and emergency med-15
ical services personnel within such departments and 16
agencies. 17
(b) C
ONSULTATION.—In developing resources under 18
subsection (a), the Administrator of the United States 19
Fire Administration and the Secretary of Health and 20
Human Services shall consult with national fire and emer-21
gency medical services organizations. 22
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 23
(1) C
HIEF OFFICER.—The term ‘‘chief officer’’ 24
means any individual who is responsible for the over-25
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all operation of a fire department or an emergency 1
medical services agency, irrespective of whether such 2
individual also serves as a firefighter or emergency 3
medical services personnel. 4
(2) E
MERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES PER -5
SONNEL.—The term ‘‘emergency medical services 6
personnel’’ means any employee, regardless of rank 7
or whether the employee receives compensation, as 8
defined in section 1204(7) of the Omnibus Crime 9
Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10
10284(7)). 11
(3) F
IREFIGHTER.—The term ‘‘firefighter’’ 12
means any employee, regardless of rank or whether 13
the employee receives compensation, of a Federal, 14
State, Tribal, or local fire department who is respon-15
sible for responding to calls for emergency service. 16
SEC. 6. BEST PRACTICES AND OTHER RESOURCES FOR AD-17
DRESSING POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DIS-18
ORDER IN PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICERS. 19
(a) D
EVELOPMENT; UPDATES.—The Secretary of 20
Health and Human Services shall— 21
(1) develop and assemble evidence-based best 22
practices and other resources to identify, prevent, 23
and treat posttraumatic stress disorder and co-oc-24
curring disorders in public safety officers; and 25
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(2) reassess and update, as the Secretary deter-1
mines necessary, such best practices and resources, 2
including based upon the options for interventions to 3
reduce suicide among public safety officers identified 4
in the annual reports required by section 5
317W(e)(1)(F) of the Public Health Service Act, as 6
added by section 2 of this Act. 7
(b) C
ONSULTATION.—In developing, assembling, and 8
updating the best practices and resources under sub-9
section (a), the Secretary of Health and Human Services 10
shall consult with, at a minimum, the following: 11
(1) Public health experts. 12
(2) Mental health experts with experience in 13
studying suicide and other profession-related trau-14
matic stress. 15
(3) Clinicians with experience in diagnosing and 16
treating mental health issues. 17
(4) Relevant national police, fire, and emer-18
gency medical services organizations. 19
(c) A
VAILABILITY.—The Secretary of Health and 20
Human Services shall make the best practices and re-21
sources under subsection (a) available to Federal, State, 22
and local fire, law enforcement, and emergency medical 23
services agencies. 24
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(d) FEDERALTRAINING ANDDEVELOPMENT PRO-1
GRAMS.—The Secretary of Health and Human Services 2
shall work with Federal departments and agencies, includ-3
ing the United States Fire Administration, to incorporate 4
education and training on the best practices and resources 5
under subsection (a) into Federal training and develop-6
ment programs for public safety officers. 7
(e) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘public 8
safety officer’’ means— 9
(1) a public safety officer, as defined in section 10
1204 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 11
Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10284); or 12
(2) a public safety telecommunicator, as de-13
scribed in detailed occupation 43–5031 in the Stand-14
ard Occupational Classification Manual of the Office 15
of Management and Budget (2018). 16
Æ
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