I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3071 
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 
MAY 7, 2021 
Mr. TRONE (for himself and Mr. RESCHENTHALER) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
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. 
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 2021’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(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) From time to time this means being called 
to respond to stressful and potentially traumatic sit-
uations, sometimes even putting their own lives in 
danger. 
(3) This work not only puts them at risk for ex-
periencing harm, serious injury, and severe trauma, 
but also places them at up to 25.6 times higher risk 
for developing post-traumatic stress disorder when 
compared to those without such experiences. 
(4) Psychological evidence indicates law en-
forcement officers experience significant job-related 
stressors and exposures that may confer increased 
risk for mental health morbidities (for example post- 
traumatic stress disorder, and suicidal thoughts and 
behaviors), and hastened mortality. 
(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) In 2017, the Department of Justice ap-
proved 481 Public Safety Officer Benefit (PSOB) 
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claims, but not one of them for the over 240 public 
safety officers who died by suicide that year. 
(7) As it currently stands, officers who have 
died or are disabled as a result of suicide or post- 
traumatic stress disorder do not qualify for this pro-
gram, despite officers being more likely to die by 
suicide than in the line of duty. 
SEC. 3. PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER DEATH BENEFITS FOR 
POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AND 
ACUTE STRESS DISORDER. 
Section 1201 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 
Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10281) is amended by 
adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(o) As determined by the Bureau— 
‘‘(1) post-traumatic stress disorder or acute 
stress disorder suffered by a public safety officer, 
and diagnosed by a licensed medical or mental 
health professional, shall be presumed to constitute 
a personal injury within the meaning of subsection 
(a), sustained in the line of duty by the officer, if 
the officer, while on duty, engages in situations in-
volving stressful, tensional, or traumatic law enforce-
ment, fire suppression, rescue, hazardous material 
response, emergency medical services (including re-
sponding to opioid overdoses, or traumatic psycho-
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logical or psychiatric distress calls), prison security, 
disaster relief, or other emergency response activity; 
and 
‘‘(2) in the case that a public safety officer de-
scribed in paragraph (1) dies by suicide (for pur-
poses of a claim under subsection (a)), or is perma-
nently and totally disabled as a result of post-trau-
matic stress disorder or acute stress disorder, in-
cluding as a result of attempted suicide (for pur-
poses of a claim under subsection (b)), such death 
or disability shall be presumed to be a direct and 
proximate result of such engagement, 
unless competent psychological or medical evidence estab-
lishes that the post-traumatic stress disorder or acute 
stress disorder was unrelated to the engagement or was 
directly and proximately caused by something other than 
the mere presence of post-traumatic stress disorder or 
acute stress disorder risk factors. For purposes of para-
graph (2), a public safety officer shall be considered per-
manently and totally disabled as a result of post-traumatic 
stress disorder or acute stress disorder if the officer is un-
able to serve as a public safety officer in the same or sub-
stantially similar role as the officer was serving prior to 
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or acute 
stress disorder.’’. 
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SEC. 4. GAO REPORT. 
On the date that is one year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the 
United States shall submit to Congress a report on bene-
fits issued pursuant to subsection (o) of section 1201 of 
the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 
(34 U.S.C. 10281), as added by this Act, and any rec-
ommendations to improve such subsection. 
Æ 
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