I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7268 

To require Federal law enforcement and prison officials to obtain or provide 

immediate medical attention to individuals in custody who display medical 

distress. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 18, 2020 

Ms. PRESSLEY (for herself, Ms. OMAR, Ms. HAALAND, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. 

NORTON, Mr. ENGEL, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Ms. 

CLARK of Massachusetts, Mr. MCEACHIN, Mr. KENNEDY, Ms. TLAIB, 

Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, 

Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York, and Ms. 

VELA ́ZQUEZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To require Federal law enforcement and prison officials to 

obtain or provide immediate medical attention to individuals in custody who display medical distress. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Andrew Kearse Ac5 countability for Denial of Medical Care Act of 2020’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. MEDICAL ATTENTION FOR INDIVIDUALS IN FED2 ERAL CUSTODY DISPLAYING MEDICAL DIS3 TRESS. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 13 of title 18, United 

5 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol6 lowing: 

7 ‘‘§ 250. Medical attention for individuals in Federal 

8 custody displaying medical distress 

9 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 

10 ‘‘(1) the term ‘appropriate Inspector General’, 

11 with respect to a covered official, means— 

12 ‘‘(A) the Inspector General of the Federal 

13 agency that employs the covered official; or 

14 ‘‘(B) in the case of a covered official em15 ployed by a Federal agency that does not have 

16 an Inspector General, the Inspector General of 

17 the Department of Justice; 

18 ‘‘(2) the term ‘covered official’ means a Federal 

19 law enforcement officer (as defined in section 115) 

20 or an officer or employee of the Bureau of Prisons; 

21 and 

22 ‘‘(3) the term ‘medical distress’ includes breath23 ing difficulties. 

24 ‘‘(b) REQUIREMENT.— 

25 ‘‘(1) OFFENSE.—It shall be unlawful for a cov26 ered official to negligently fail to obtain or provide 


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1 immediate medical attention to an individual in Fed2 eral custody who displays medical distress in the 

3 presence of the covered official, if the individual suf4 fers unnecessary pain, injury, or death as a result of 

5 that failure. 

6 ‘‘(2) PENALTY.—A covered official who violates 

7 paragraph (1) shall be fined under this title, impris8 oned for not more than 1 year, or both. 

9 ‘‘(3) STATE CIVIL ENFORCEMENT.—Whenever 

10 an attorney general of a State has reasonable cause 

11 to believe that a resident of the State has been ag12 grieved by a violation of paragraph (1) by a covered 

13 official, the attorney general, or another official, 

14 agency, or entity designated by the State, may bring 

15 a civil action in any appropriate district court of the 

16 United States to obtain appropriate equitable and 

17 declaratory relief. 

18 ‘‘(c) INSPECTOR GENERAL INVESTIGATION.— 

19 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The appropriate Inspector 

20 General shall investigate any instance in which— 

21 ‘‘(A) a covered official fails to obtain or 

22 provide immediate medical attention to an indi23 vidual in Federal custody who displays medical 

24 distress in the presence of the covered official; 

25 and 


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1 ‘‘(B) the individual suffers unnecessary 

2 pain, injury, or death as a result of the failure 

3 to obtain or provide immediate medical atten4 tion. 

5 ‘‘(2) REFERRAL FOR PROSECUTION.—If an In6 spector General, in conducting an investigation 

7 under paragraph (1), concludes that the covered offi8 cial acted negligently in failing to obtain or provide 

9 immediate medical attention to the individual in 

10 Federal custody, the Inspector General shall refer 

11 the case to the Attorney General for prosecution 

12 under this section. 

13 ‘‘(3) CONFIDENTIAL COMPLAINT PROCESS.— 

14 The Inspector General of a Federal agency that em15 ploys covered officials shall establish a process under 

16 which an individual may confidentially submit a 

17 complaint to the Inspector General regarding an in18 cident described in paragraph (1) involving a covered 

19 official employed by the Federal agency (or, in the 

20 case of the Inspector General of the Department of 

21 Justice, involving a covered official employed by a 

22 Federal agency that does not have an Inspector Gen23 eral). 

24 ‘‘(d) TRAINING.—The head of an agency that em25 ploys covered officials shall provide training to each such 


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1 covered official on obtaining or providing medical assist2 ance to individuals in medical distress.’’. 

3 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 

4 The table of sections for chapter 13 of title 18, United 

5 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol6 lowing: 

‘‘250. Medical attention for individuals in Federal custody displaying medical 

distress.’’. 

Æ 


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