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 Pro-
gram, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘DHS Suicide Preven-
tion and Resiliency for Law Enforcement Act’’. 
SEC. 2. DHS SUICIDE PREVENTION AND RESILIENCY FOR 
LAW ENFORCEMENT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Homeland Security Act of 
2002 is amended by inserting after section 710 the fol-
lowing new section: 
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‘‘SEC. 710A. SUICIDE PREVENTION AND RESILIENCY FOR 
LAW ENFORCEMENT. 
‘‘(a) DEPARTMENT COMPONENTS DEFINED.—In this 
section, the term ‘Department components’ means the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(1) U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 
‘‘(2) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforce-
ment. 
‘‘(3) The Office of the Inspector General of the 
Department of Homeland Security. 
‘‘(4) The United States Secret Service. 
‘‘(5) The Transportation Security Administra-
tion. 
‘‘(6) Any other Department component with law 
enforcement officers or agents. 
‘‘(b) LAW ENFORCEMENT MENTAL HEALTH
AND 
WELLNESS PROGRAM.— 
‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 
establish, within the office overseen by the 
Chief Medical Officer of the Department, the 
Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness 
Program (in this section referred to as the 
‘Program’). 
‘‘(B) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the Pro-
gram shall be to provide a comprehensive ap-
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proach to address the mental health and 
wellness of Department law enforcement offi-
cers and agents. 
‘‘(C) ADMINISTRATION.—The Secretary, 
working through the Program, shall— 
‘‘(i) establish and maintain policies 
and standard operating procedures, con-
sistent with best evidence-based practices, 
that detail the authority, roles, and respon-
sibilities of the Program; 
‘‘(ii) conduct data collection and re-
search on mental health, suicides, and, to 
the extent possible, attempted suicides, of 
Department law enforcement officers and 
agents, in accordance with section 552a of 
title 5, United States Code (commonly 
known as the Privacy Act of 1974), section 
501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 
U.S.C. 791), the Department’s directives 
and policies, and section 2(a) of the Law 
Enforcement Suicide Data Collection Act 
(Public Law 116–143); 
‘‘(iii) track current trends and leading 
practices from other governmental and 
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nongovernmental organizations for law en-
forcement mental health and wellness; 
‘‘(iv) evaluate current mental health 
and resiliency programs within the Depart-
ment components; 
‘‘(v) promote education and training 
related to mental health, resilience, suicide 
prevention, stigma, and mental health re-
sources to raise mental health awareness, 
and provide support to others, inclusive of 
the needs of supervisors, clinicians, care- 
givers, peer support members, chaplains, 
and those who have been exposed to trau-
ma; 
‘‘(vi) establish a Peer-to-Peer Support 
Program Advisory Council, which shall— 
‘‘(I) include at least one licensed 
clinician and at least one official with 
requisite and relevant training and ex-
perience in peer support from each 
Department component; 
‘‘(II) evaluate component peer 
support programs; 
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‘‘(III) identify and address any 
potential deficiencies, limitations, and 
gaps; 
‘‘(IV) provide for sharing of lead-
ing practices or best practices, includ-
ing internationally recognized peer 
support standards of care protocols; 
‘‘(V) create a peer support net-
work that enables the sharing of 
trained peer support personnel, chap-
lains, and other peer-to-peer personnel 
across Department components; and 
‘‘(VI) sustain peer support pro-
grams through ongoing funding of an-
nual and refresher training and re-
sources for peer support programing 
in the workplace to— 
‘‘(aa) 
ensure 
minimum 
standards for peer support serv-
ices; and 
‘‘(bb) provide appropriate 
care for peer support personnel 
across Department components; 
‘‘(vii) assist Department components 
in developing a program to provide suicide 
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prevention and resiliency support and 
training for— 
‘‘(I) families of Department law 
enforcement officers and agents; and 
‘‘(II) surviving families of officers 
and agents who have been lost to sui-
cide; 
‘‘(viii) work with law enforcement 
mental health and wellness program offi-
cials of Department components (including 
peer support-trained personnel, agency 
mental health professionals, chaplains, 
and, for components with employees having 
an exclusive representative, the exclusive 
representative with respect to such pro-
gram) to implement new policies, proce-
dures, and programs that may be nec-
essary based on findings from data collec-
tion, research, and evaluation efforts; and 
‘‘(ix) conduct regular outreach and 
messaging, across Department compo-
nents, of available training opportunities 
and resources. 
‘‘(D) CONFIDENTIALITY; LIMITATION.— 
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‘‘(i) 
CONFIDENTIALITY.—Activities 
described in subparagraph (C) may not in-
clude the publication of any personally 
identifiable information. 
‘‘(ii) LIMITATION.—Personally identi-
fiable information collected pursuant to 
subparagraph (C) may not be maintained 
or used for any purpose other than imple-
mentation of this section, unless otherwise 
permitted under applicable law. Any such 
personally identifiable information that is 
so collected, maintained, or used pursuant 
to this section is subject to applicable pub-
lic nondisclosure requirements, including 
sections 552 and 552a of title 5, United 
States Code. 
‘‘(E) PERSONNEL.— 
‘‘(i) MANAGEMENT.—The Workplace 
Health and Wellness Coordinator of the 
Department, under the direction of the 
Chief Medical Officer of the Department, 
shall be responsible for the ongoing man-
agement of the Program. 
‘‘(ii) MINIMUM CORE PERSONNEL RE-
QUIREMENTS.—Subject to appropriations, 
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the Secretary shall ensure the Program is 
staffed with the number of employees the 
Chief Medical Officer of the Department 
determines necessary to carry out the du-
ties described in subparagraph (C), includ-
ing representatives from each Department 
component and the Office of the Chief Pri-
vacy Officer. 
‘‘(2) DIRECTIVE.—Not later than 180 days 
after the date of the enactment of this section, the 
Chief Medical Officer of the Department shall— 
‘‘(A) issue a directive or policy that out-
lines the roles and responsibilities of the Pro-
gram; and 
‘‘(B) distribute such directive or policy 
among all Department personnel. 
‘‘(c) COORDINATION.—The Chief Medical Officer of 
the Department shall require the Program to regularly co-
ordinate with the Department components by assigning at 
least one official from each such component to the Pro-
gram for the purpose of coordinating with field points of 
contact who are responsible for carrying out duties within 
Department mental health and wellness programs. 
‘‘(d) DEPARTMENT COMPONENTS.—The Secretary 
shall require the head of each Department component to 
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prioritize and improve mental health and wellness pro-
grams that— 
‘‘(1) provide adequate resources for law enforce-
ment mental health, well-being, resilience, and sui-
cide prevention programs and research; 
‘‘(2) promote a culture that reduces the stigma 
of seeking mental health assistance through regular 
messaging, training, and raising mental health 
awareness; 
‘‘(3) offer several avenues of seeking mental 
health or counseling assistance, both within the com-
ponent and through private sources that provide for 
anonymity and include access to external mental 
health clinicians; 
‘‘(4) review and revise relevant policies of De-
partment components that inadvertently deter per-
sonnel from seeking mental health or counseling as-
sistance; 
‘‘(5) ensure that such programs include safe-
guards against adverse action, including automatic 
referrals for a fitness for duty examination, by such 
component with respect to any employee solely be-
cause such employee self-identifies a need for psy-
chological health counseling or assistance or receives 
such counseling or assistance; 
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‘‘(6) implement policies that require in-person 
or live and interactive virtual suicide awareness and 
law enforcement resiliency trainings to be provided 
to law enforcement officers and agents; 
‘‘(7) makes such trainings available, as appro-
priate, to other component personnel— 
‘‘(A) upon the commencement of such offi-
cers’, agents’, and other component’s person-
nel’s employment; 
‘‘(B) on an annual basis during such em-
ployment; 
‘‘(C) during such officers’, agents’, or 
other component’s personnel’s transition into 
supervisory roles; and 
‘‘(D) if feasible, shortly before such officer, 
agent, or other component’s personnel termi-
nates his or her employment with the Depart-
ment, if such officer, agent, or other compo-
nent’s personnel elects to participate; and 
‘‘(8) include prevention and awareness training 
opportunities and support services for families of 
agents, officers, and other component personnel. 
‘‘(e) DATA COLLECTION AND EVALUATION.— 
‘‘(1) ASSESSMENT OF EFFECTIVENESS OF LAW 
ENFORCEMENT
HEALTH
AND
WELLNESS
PRO-
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GRAMS.—The Workplace Health and Wellness Coor-
dinator, under the direction of the Chief Medical Of-
ficer of the Department— 
‘‘(A) shall— 
‘‘(i) develop criteria to assess the ef-
fectiveness of law enforcement health and 
wellness programs carried out by the De-
partment; 
‘‘(ii) conduct annual confidential sur-
veys of law enforcement officers and 
agents within Department components to 
assist in evaluating the effectiveness of law 
enforcement health and wellness programs 
in accordance with the criteria developed 
pursuant to clause (i); and 
‘‘(iii) ensure that the surveys con-
ducted pursuant to clause (ii)— 
‘‘(I) incorporate leading practices 
in questionnaire and survey design 
and development; and 
‘‘(II) establish a baseline and 
subsequently measure change over 
time; and 
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‘‘(B) may utilize contractor support in car-
rying out the duties described in subparagraph 
(A). 
‘‘(2) RECOMMENDATIONS.—The Chief Medical 
Officer of the Department shall provide rec-
ommendations to Department components based on 
the evaluation of programs and the results of the 
surveys conducted pursuant to paragraph (1). 
‘‘(3) INCIDENT
REPORTS.—Each Department 
component shall report to the Workplace Health and 
Wellness Coordinator incidents of suicide involving 
law enforcement officers and agents, together with 
any data relating thereto consistent with data col-
lected under section 2(a) of the Law Enforcement 
Suicide Data Collection Act (Public Law 116–143). 
The Coordinator shall forward such information to 
the Law Enforcement Officers Suicide Data Collec-
tion Program established pursuant to such section. 
‘‘(4) CONFIDENTIALITY; LIMITATION.— 
‘‘(A) 
CONFIDENTIALITY.—Activities 
de-
scribed in paragraph (1) or reporting described 
under paragraph (3) may not include the publi-
cation of any personally identifiable informa-
tion. 
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‘‘(B) LIMITATION.—Personally identifiable 
information collected pursuant to paragraph (1) 
may not be maintained or used for any purpose 
other than implementation of this section, un-
less otherwise permitted under applicable law. 
Any such personally identifiable information 
that is so collected, maintained, or used pursu-
ant to this section is subject to applicable public 
nondisclosure requirements, including sections 
552 and 552a of title 5, United States Code. 
‘‘(f) BRIEFING.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date of the enactment of this section and annually there-
after through fiscal year 2027, the Chief Medical Officer 
of the Department shall provide to the Committee on 
Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and 
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs of the Senate a briefing regarding the implementa-
tion of this section.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 
in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 is 
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 
710 the following new item: 
‘‘Sec. 710A. Suicide prevention and resiliency for law enforcement.’’. 
Æ 
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