Public Safety Officer Support Act of 2020

Public Safety Officer Support Act of 2020

This bill extends death and disability benefits under the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program (PSOB) to certain public safety officers and survivors of public safety officers who are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following a stressful situation while on duty. The PSOB program provides death, disability, and education benefits to public safety officers and survivors of public safety officers who are killed or injured in the line of duty.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7568 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7568

  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, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              July 9, 2020

Mr. Trone (for himself and Mr. Reschenthaler) introduced the following 
       bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  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, 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 
2020''.

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) From time to time this means being called to respond to 
        stressful and potentially traumatic situations, sometimes even 
        putting their own lives in danger.
            (3) This work not only puts them at risk for experiencing 
        harm, serious injury, and severe trauma, but also places them 
        at up to 25.6 times higher risk for developing post-traumatic 
        stress disorder when compared to those without such 
        experiences.
            (4) Psychological evidence indicates law enforcement 
        officers experience significant job-related stressors and 
        exposures that may confer increased risk for mental health 
        morbidities (for example post-traumatic stress disorder, and 
        suicidal thoughts 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) In 2017, the Department of Justice approved 481 Public 
        Safety Officer Benefit (PSOB) claims, but not one of them for 
        the over 240 public safety officers who died by suicide that 
        year.
            (7) As it currently stands, officers who have died or are 
        disabled as a result of suicide or post-traumatic stress 
        disorder do not qualify for this program, despite officers 
        being more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty.

SEC. 3. PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER DEATH BENEFITS FOR POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS 
              DISORDER.

    Section 1201 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) As determined by the Bureau--
            ``(1) post-traumatic stress disorder 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, while on duty, 
        engages in situations involving stressful, tensional, or 
        traumatic law enforcement, fire suppression, rescue, hazardous 
        material response, emergency medical services (including 
        responding to opioid overdoses, or traumatic psychological or 
        psychiatric distress calls), prison security, disaster relief, 
        or other emergency response activity; and
            ``(2) in the case that a public safety officer described in 
        paragraph (1) dies by suicide (for purposes of a claim under 
        subsection (a)), or is permanently and totally disabled as a 
        result of post-traumatic stress disorder, including as a result 
        of attempted suicide (for purposes of a claim under subsection 
        (b)), such death or disability shall be presumed to be a direct 
        and proximate result of such engagement,
unless competent psychological or medical evidence establishes that the 
post-traumatic stress disorder was unrelated to the engagement or was 
directly and proximately caused by something other than the mere 
presence of post-traumatic stress disorder risk factors. For purposes 
of paragraph (2), a public safety officer shall be considered 
permanently and totally disabled as a result of post-traumatic stress 
disorder if the officer is unable to serve as a public safety officer 
in the same or substantially similar role as the officer was serving 
prior to suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.''.

SEC. 4. GAO REPORT.

    On the date that is one year after the date of the enactment of 
this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to 
Congress a report on benefits issued pursuant to subsection (o) of 
section 1201 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 
(34 U.S.C. 10281), as added by this Act, and any recommendations to 
improve such subsection.
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