I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2577 

To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish the Law 

Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Program, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 13, 2023 

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi (for himself and Mr. GARBARINO) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security 

A BILL 

To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish 

the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Program, and for other purposes. 

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 ‘‘DHS Suicide Preven5 tion and Resiliency for Law Enforcement Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DHS SUICIDE PREVENTION AND RESILIENCY FOR 

7 LAW ENFORCEMENT. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Homeland Security Act of 

9 2002 is amended by inserting after section 710 the fol10 lowing new section: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 710A. SUICIDE PREVENTION AND RESILIENCY FOR 

2 LAW ENFORCEMENT. 

3 ‘‘(a) DEPARTMENT COMPONENTS DEFINED.—In this 

4 section, the term ‘Department components’ means the fol5 lowing: 

6 ‘‘(1) U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 

7 ‘‘(2) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforce8 ment. 

9 ‘‘(3) The Office of the Inspector General of the 

10 Department of Homeland Security. 

11 ‘‘(4) The United States Secret Service. 

12 ‘‘(5) The Transportation Security Administra13 tion. 

14 ‘‘(6) Any other Department component with law 

15 enforcement officers or agents. 

16 ‘‘(b) LAW ENFORCEMENT MENTAL HEALTH AND

17 WELLNESS PROGRAM.— 

18 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.— 

19 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 

20 establish, within the office overseen by the 

21 Chief Medical Officer of the Department, the 

22 Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness 

23 Program (in this section referred to as the 

24 ‘Program’). 

25 ‘‘(B) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the Pro26 gram shall be to provide a comprehensive apVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:39 Apr 14, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2577.IH H2577

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1 proach to address the mental health and 

2 wellness of Department law enforcement offi3 cers and agents. 

4 ‘‘(C) ADMINISTRATION.—The Secretary, 

5 working through the Program, shall— 

6 ‘‘(i) establish and maintain policies 

7 and standard operating procedures, con8 sistent with best evidence-based practices, 

9 that detail the authority, roles, and respon10 sibilities of the Program; 

11 ‘‘(ii) conduct data collection and re12 search on mental health, suicides, and, to 

13 the extent possible, attempted suicides, of 

14 Department law enforcement officers and 

15 agents, in accordance with section 552a of 

16 title 5, United States Code (commonly 

17 known as the Privacy Act of 1974), section 

18 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 

19 U.S.C. 791), the Department’s directives 

20 and policies, and section 2(a) of the Law 

21 Enforcement Suicide Data Collection Act 

22 (Public Law 116–143); 

23 ‘‘(iii) track current trends and leading 

24 practices from other governmental and 


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1 nongovernmental organizations for law en2 forcement mental health and wellness; 

3 ‘‘(iv) evaluate current mental health 

4 and resiliency programs within the Depart5 ment components; 

6 ‘‘(v) promote education and training 

7 related to mental health, resilience, suicide 

8 prevention, stigma, and mental health re9 sources to raise mental health awareness, 

10 and provide support to others, inclusive of 

11 the needs of supervisors, clinicians, care12 givers, peer support members, chaplains, 

13 and those who have been exposed to trau14 ma; 

15 ‘‘(vi) establish a Peer-to-Peer Support 

16 Program Advisory Council, which shall— 

17 ‘‘(I) include at least one licensed 

18 clinician and at least one official with 

19 requisite and relevant training and ex20 perience in peer support from each 

21 Department component; 

22 ‘‘(II) evaluate component peer 

23 support programs; 


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1 ‘‘(III) identify and address any 

2 potential deficiencies, limitations, and 

3 gaps; 

4 ‘‘(IV) provide for sharing of lead5 ing practices or best practices, includ6 ing internationally recognized peer 

7 support standards of care protocols; 

8 ‘‘(V) create a peer support net9 work that enables the sharing of 

10 trained peer support personnel, chap11 lains, and other peer-to-peer personnel 

12 across Department components; and 

13 ‘‘(VI) sustain peer support pro14 grams through ongoing funding of an15 nual and refresher training and re16 sources for peer support programing 

17 in the workplace to— 

18 ‘‘(aa) ensure minimum 

19 standards for peer support serv20 ices; and 

21 ‘‘(bb) provide appropriate 

22 care for peer support personnel 

23 across Department components; 

24 ‘‘(vii) assist Department components 

25 in developing a program to provide suicide 


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1 prevention and resiliency support and 

2 training for— 

3 ‘‘(I) families of Department law 

4 enforcement officers and agents; and 

5 ‘‘(II) surviving families of officers 

6 and agents who have been lost to sui7 cide; 

8 ‘‘(viii) work with law enforcement 

9 mental health and wellness program offi10 cials of Department components (including 

11 peer support-trained personnel, agency 

12 mental health professionals, chaplains, 

13 and, for components with employees having 

14 an exclusive representative, the exclusive 

15 representative with respect to such pro16 gram) to implement new policies, proce17 dures, and programs that may be nec18 essary based on findings from data collec19 tion, research, and evaluation efforts; and 

20 ‘‘(ix) conduct regular outreach and 

21 messaging, across Department compo22 nents, of available training opportunities 

23 and resources. 

24 ‘‘(D) CONFIDENTIALITY; LIMITATION.— 


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1 ‘‘(i) CONFIDENTIALITY.—Activities 

2 described in subparagraph (C) may not in3 clude the publication of any personally 

4 identifiable information. 

5 ‘‘(ii) LIMITATION.—Personally identi6 fiable information collected pursuant to 

7 subparagraph (C) may not be maintained 

8 or used for any purpose other than imple9 mentation of this section, unless otherwise 

10 permitted under applicable law. Any such 

11 personally identifiable information that is 

12 so collected, maintained, or used pursuant 

13 to this section is subject to applicable pub14 lic nondisclosure requirements, including 

15 sections 552 and 552a of title 5, United 

16 States Code. 

17 ‘‘(E) PERSONNEL.— 

18 ‘‘(i) MANAGEMENT.—The Workplace 

19 Health and Wellness Coordinator of the 

20 Department, under the direction of the 

21 Chief Medical Officer of the Department, 

22 shall be responsible for the ongoing man23 agement of the Program. 

24 ‘‘(ii) MINIMUM CORE PERSONNEL RE25 QUIREMENTS.—Subject to appropriations, 


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1 the Secretary shall ensure the Program is 

2 staffed with the number of employees the 

3 Chief Medical Officer of the Department 

4 determines necessary to carry out the du5 ties described in subparagraph (C), includ6 ing representatives from each Department 

7 component and the Office of the Chief Pri8 vacy Officer. 

9 ‘‘(2) DIRECTIVE.—Not later than 180 days 

10 after the date of the enactment of this section, the 

11 Chief Medical Officer of the Department shall— 

12 ‘‘(A) issue a directive or policy that out13 lines the roles and responsibilities of the Pro14 gram; and 

15 ‘‘(B) distribute such directive or policy 

16 among all Department personnel. 

17 ‘‘(c) COORDINATION.—The Chief Medical Officer of 

18 the Department shall require the Program to regularly co19 ordinate with the Department components by assigning at 

20 least one official from each such component to the Pro21 gram for the purpose of coordinating with field points of 

22 contact who are responsible for carrying out duties within 

23 Department mental health and wellness programs. 

24 ‘‘(d) DEPARTMENT COMPONENTS.—The Secretary 

25 shall require the head of each Department component to 


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1 prioritize and improve mental health and wellness pro2 grams that— 

3 ‘‘(1) provide adequate resources for law enforce4 ment mental health, well-being, resilience, and sui5 cide prevention programs and research; 

6 ‘‘(2) promote a culture that reduces the stigma 

7 of seeking mental health assistance through regular 

8 messaging, training, and raising mental health 

9 awareness; 

10 ‘‘(3) offer several avenues of seeking mental 

11 health or counseling assistance, both within the com12 ponent and through private sources that provide for 

13 anonymity and include access to external mental 

14 health clinicians; 

15 ‘‘(4) review and revise relevant policies of De16 partment components that inadvertently deter per17 sonnel from seeking mental health or counseling as18 sistance; 

19 ‘‘(5) ensure that such programs include safe20 guards against adverse action, including automatic 

21 referrals for a fitness for duty examination, by such 

22 component with respect to any employee solely be23 cause such employee self-identifies a need for psy24 chological health counseling or assistance or receives 

25 such counseling or assistance; 


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1 ‘‘(6) implement policies that require in-person 

2 or live and interactive virtual suicide awareness and 

3 law enforcement resiliency trainings to be provided 

4 to law enforcement officers and agents; 

5 ‘‘(7) makes such trainings available, as appro6 priate, to other component personnel— 

7 ‘‘(A) upon the commencement of such offi8 cers’, agents’, and other component’s person9 nel’s employment; 

10 ‘‘(B) on an annual basis during such em11 ployment; 

12 ‘‘(C) during such officers’, agents’, or 

13 other component’s personnel’s transition into 

14 supervisory roles; and 

15 ‘‘(D) if feasible, shortly before such officer, 

16 agent, or other component’s personnel termi17 nates his or her employment with the Depart18 ment, if such officer, agent, or other compo19 nent’s personnel elects to participate; and 

20 ‘‘(8) include prevention and awareness training 

21 opportunities and support services for families of 

22 agents, officers, and other component personnel. 

23 ‘‘(e) DATA COLLECTION AND EVALUATION.— 

24 ‘‘(1) ASSESSMENT OF EFFECTIVENESS OF LAW

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1 GRAMS.—The Workplace Health and Wellness Coor2 dinator, under the direction of the Chief Medical Of3 ficer of the Department— 

4 ‘‘(A) shall— 

5 ‘‘(i) develop criteria to assess the ef6 fectiveness of law enforcement health and 

7 wellness programs carried out by the De8 partment; 

9 ‘‘(ii) conduct annual confidential sur10 veys of law enforcement officers and 

11 agents within Department components to 

12 assist in evaluating the effectiveness of law 

13 enforcement health and wellness programs 

14 in accordance with the criteria developed 

15 pursuant to clause (i); and 

16 ‘‘(iii) ensure that the surveys con17 ducted pursuant to clause (ii)— 

18 ‘‘(I) incorporate leading practices 

19 in questionnaire and survey design 

20 and development; and 

21 ‘‘(II) establish a baseline and 

22 subsequently measure change over 

23 time; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) may utilize contractor support in car2 rying out the duties described in subparagraph 

3 (A). 

4 ‘‘(2) RECOMMENDATIONS.—The Chief Medical 

5 Officer of the Department shall provide rec6 ommendations to Department components based on 

7 the evaluation of programs and the results of the 

8 surveys conducted pursuant to paragraph (1). 

9 ‘‘(3) INCIDENT REPORTS.—Each Department 

10 component shall report to the Workplace Health and 

11 Wellness Coordinator incidents of suicide involving 

12 law enforcement officers and agents, together with 

13 any data relating thereto consistent with data col14 lected under section 2(a) of the Law Enforcement 

15 Suicide Data Collection Act (Public Law 116–143). 

16 The Coordinator shall forward such information to 

17 the Law Enforcement Officers Suicide Data Collec18 tion Program established pursuant to such section. 

19 ‘‘(4) CONFIDENTIALITY; LIMITATION.— 

20 ‘‘(A) CONFIDENTIALITY.—Activities de21 scribed in paragraph (1) or reporting described 

22 under paragraph (3) may not include the publi23 cation of any personally identifiable informa24 tion. 


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1 ‘‘(B) LIMITATION.—Personally identifiable 

2 information collected pursuant to paragraph (1) 

3 may not be maintained or used for any purpose 

4 other than implementation of this section, un5 less otherwise permitted under applicable law. 

6 Any such personally identifiable information 

7 that is so collected, maintained, or used pursu8 ant to this section is subject to applicable public 

9 nondisclosure requirements, including sections 

10 552 and 552a of title 5, United States Code. 

11 ‘‘(f) BRIEFING.—Not later than 180 days after the 

12 date of the enactment of this section and annually there13 after through fiscal year 2027, the Chief Medical Officer 

14 of the Department shall provide to the Committee on 

15 Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and 

16 the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 

17 Affairs of the Senate a briefing regarding the implementa18 tion of this section.’’. 

19 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

20 in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 is 

21 amended by inserting after the item relating to section 

22 710 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 710A. Suicide prevention and resiliency for law enforcement.’’. 

Æ 


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