IB 
Union Calendar No. 252 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6943 
[Report No. 117–335] 
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 or acute stress disorder, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 7, 2022 
Mr. TRONE (for himself and Mr. RESCHENTHALER) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
MAY 18, 2022 
Additional sponsors: Mr. FITZPATRICK, Ms. CRAIG, Mr. BEYER, Mr. HUDSON, 
Mr. GARBARINO, Ms. STEFANIK, Ms. BASS, Miss GONZA´LEZ-COLO´N, Mr. 
LAMALFA, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. 
HERRELL, Mrs. MCBATH, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. RUPPERSBERGER, Mrs. 
WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania, Mr. PAPPAS, Mr. 
SUOZZI, Mr. DIAZ-BALART, Mr. BACON, Mr. COLE, Ms. WILD, Ms. 
BLUNT ROCHESTER, Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky, Mr. PHILLIPS, Ms. NOR-
TON, Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. KEATING, Mrs. LESKO, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. 
THOMPSON of California, Ms. PORTER, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. TONKO, Ms. 
SCHRIER, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. NEHLS, Mr. JEFFRIES, Ms. 
UNDERWOOD, Mr. RUTHERFORD, Mr. SWALWELL, Mr. TIMMONS, Mr. 
QUIGLEY, Mr. PERLMUTTER, and Mr. LARSON of Connecticut 
MAY 18, 2022 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on March 7, 2022] 
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A BILL 
To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 
Act of 1968 to authorize public safety officer death bene-
fits to officers suffering from post-traumatic stress dis-
order or acute stress disorder, and for other purposes. 
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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 ‘‘Public Safety Officer 
Support Act of 2022’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Every day, public safety officers, including 
police officers, firefighters, emergency medical techni-
cians, and others, work to maintain the safety, health, 
and well-being of the communities they serve. 
(2) This means public safety officers are rou-
tinely called to respond to stressful and potentially 
traumatic situations, often putting their own lives in 
danger. 
(3) This work not only puts public safety officers 
at-risk for experiencing harm, serious injury, and cu-
mulative and acute trauma, but also places them at 
up to 25.6 times higher risk for developing post-trau-
matic stress disorder when compared to individuals 
without such experiences. 
(4) Psychological evidence indicates that law en-
forcement officers experience significant job-related 
stressors and exposures that may confer increased risk 
for mental health morbidities (such as post-traumatic 
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stress disorder and suicidal thoughts, ideation, in-
tents, and behaviors) and hastened mortality. 
(5) Public safety officers often do not have the re-
sources or support they need, leaving them at higher 
risk for long-term mental health consequences. 
(6) Whereas, although the Department of Defense 
already considers servicemember suicides to be line-of- 
duty deaths and provides Federal support to eligible 
surviving families, the Federal Government does not 
recognize public safety officer suicides as deaths in the 
line of duty. 
(7) In 2017, the Department of Justice approved 
481 claims under the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits 
Program under subpart 1 of part L of title I of the 
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 
(34 U.S.C. 10281 et seq.), but not one of them for the 
more than 240 public safety officers who died by sui-
cide that year. 
(8) Public safety officers who have died or are 
disabled as a result of suicide or post-traumatic stress 
disorder do not qualify for the Public Safety Officers’ 
Benefits Program, despite the fact that public safety 
officers are more likely to die by suicide than from 
any other line-of-duty cause of death. 
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