117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6943 
AN ACT 
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. 
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 tech-
nicians, 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 offi-
cers at-risk for experiencing harm, serious injury, 
and cumulative and acute trauma, but also places 
them at up to 25.6 times higher risk for developing 
post-traumatic stress disorder when compared to in-
dividuals without such experiences. 
(4) Psychological evidence indicates that law 
enforcement officers experience significant job-re-
lated stressors and exposures that may confer in-
creased risk for mental health morbidities (such as 
post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal thoughts, 
ideation, intents, and behaviors) and hastened mor-
tality.
(5) Public safety officers often do not have the 
resources or support they need, leaving them at 
higher risk for long-term mental health con-
sequences. 
(6) Whereas, although the Department of De-
fense 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 ap-
proved 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 suicide 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 sui-
cide than from any other line-of-duty cause of death.
SEC. 3. PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER DEATH BENEFITS FOR 
POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER, ACUTE 
STRESS DISORDER, OR TRAUMA AND STRESS 
RELATED DISORDERS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1201 of title I of the Om-
nibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 
U.S.C. 10281) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(o) POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER, ACUTE 
STRESS DISORDER, OR TRAUMA AND STRESS RELATED 
DISORDERS.— 
‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(A) MASS CASUALTY EVENT.—The term 
‘mass casualty event’ means an incident result-
ing in casualties to not fewer than 3 victims, in-
cluding— 
‘‘(i) an incident that exceeds the nor-
mal resources for emergency response 
available in the jurisdiction where the inci-
dent takes place; and 
‘‘(ii) an incident that results in a sud-
den and timely surge of injured individuals 
necessitating emergency services. 
‘‘(B) MASS FATALITY EVENT.—The term 
‘mass fatality event’ means an incident result-
ing in the fatalities of not fewer than 3 individ-
uals at 1 or more locations close to one another 
with a common cause. 
‘‘(C) MASS
SHOOTING.—The term ‘mass 
shooting’ means a multiple homicide incident in 
which not fewer than 3 victims are killed— 
‘‘(i) with a firearm; 
‘‘(ii) during one event; and 
‘‘(iii) in one or more locations in close 
proximity. 
‘‘(D) EXPOSED.—The term ‘exposed’ in-
cludes— 
‘‘(i) directly experiencing or wit-
nessing an event; or 
‘‘(ii) being subjected, in an intense 
way, to aversive consequences of the event 
(including a public safety officer collecting 
human remains). 
‘‘(E) TRAUMATIC EVENT.—The term ‘trau-
matic event’ means, in the case of a public safe-
ty officer exposed to an event, an event that 
is— 
‘‘(i) a homicide, suicide, or the violent 
or gruesome death of another individual 
(including such a death resulting from a