I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3117 

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 

MAY 11, 2021 

Ms. PRESSLEY (for herself, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Mr. BOWMAN, Ms. NORTON, Ms. TLAIB, 

Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. OMAR, and Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN) 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 2021’’. 


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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— 

19 ‘‘(A) a Federal law enforcement officer (as 

20 defined in section 115); 

21 ‘‘(B) an officer or employee of the Bureau 

22 of Prisons; or 

23 ‘‘(C) an officer or employee of the United 

24 States Marshals Service; and 

25 ‘‘(3) the term ‘medical distress’ includes breath26 ing difficulties. 


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1 ‘‘(b) REQUIREMENT.— 

2 ‘‘(1) OFFENSE.—It shall be unlawful for a cov3 ered official to negligently fail to obtain or provide 

4 immediate medical attention to an individual in Fed5 eral custody who displays medical distress in the 

6 presence of the covered official, if the individual suf7 fers unnecessary pain, injury, or death as a result of 

8 that failure. 

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

10 paragraph (1) shall be fined under this title, impris11 oned for not more than 1 year, or both. 

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

13 an attorney general of a State has reasonable cause 

14 to believe that a resident of the State has been ag15 grieved by a violation of paragraph (1) by a covered 

16 official, the attorney general, or another official, 

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

18 a civil action in any appropriate district court of the 

19 United States to obtain appropriate equitable and 

20 declaratory relief. 

21 ‘‘(c) INSPECTOR GENERAL INVESTIGATION.— 

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

23 General shall investigate any instance in which— 

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

25 provide immediate medical attention to an indiVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:57 Jun 10, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3117.IH H3117

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1 vidual in Federal custody who displays medical 

2 distress in the presence of the covered official; 

3 and 

4 ‘‘(B) the individual suffers unnecessary 

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

6 to obtain or provide immediate medical atten7 tion. 

8 ‘‘(2) REFERRAL FOR PROSECUTION.—If an In9 spector General, in conducting an investigation 

10 under paragraph (1), concludes that the covered offi11 cial acted negligently in failing to obtain or provide 

12 immediate medical attention to the individual in 

13 Federal custody, the Inspector General shall refer 

14 the case to the Attorney General for prosecution 

15 under this section. 

16 ‘‘(3) CONFIDENTIAL COMPLAINT PROCESS.— 

17 The Inspector General of a Federal agency that em18 ploys covered officials shall establish a process under 

19 which an individual may confidentially submit a 

20 complaint to the Inspector General regarding an in21 cident described in paragraph (1) involving a covered 

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

23 case of the Inspector General of the Department of 

24 Justice, involving a covered official employed by a 


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1 Federal agency that does not have an Inspector Gen2 eral). 

3 ‘‘(d) TRAINING.—The head of an agency that em4 ploys covered officials shall provide training to each such 

5 covered official on obtaining or providing medical assist6 ance to individuals in medical distress.’’. 

7 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 

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

9 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol10 lowing: 

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

distress.’’. 

Æ 


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