Senate passes bill to expand health benefits for public safety officers who suffer from PTSD and die by suicide
Aug 2, 2022, 1:00 PM
The exterior of the U.S. Capitol is seen during a rare Saturday session on August 7, 2021 in Washington, DC. The Senate will vote on amendments for the legislative text of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill ahead of August recess. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
(Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
(CNN) — The Senate approved a House-passed bill on Monday night that would expand disability benefits to public safety officers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following traumatic events, and would provide death benefits to survivors of officers who die by suicide in the wake of those events.
The bipartisan legislation, called the Public Safety Officer Support Act, was approved by unanimous consent in the Senate on Monday. It passed the House in May so the legislation now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
🚨Major victory for law enforcement & NAPO: Senate passed the Public Safety Officer Support Act (HR 6943) yesterday! Once the President signs it into law, PTSD will be recognized as a LOD injury under the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program. See image for full notice. pic.twitter.com/UZAksVXTNx
— CLEAT (@CLEAT) August 2, 2022
Previously, officer death benefits were not available to family members if the officer died by suicide. This measure expands the benefits to include officers who “took an action, which action was intended to bring about the officer’s death and directly and proximately resulted in such officer’s death or permanent and total disability and exposure, while on duty, to one or more traumatic events was a substantial factor in the action taken by the officer.”
According to the bill, it will apply retroactively to January 1, 2019, making the families of the four officers who died by suicide in the weeks following the January 6, 2021, riot — Metropolitan Police Officers Kyle DeFreytag, Gunther Hashida and Jeffrey Smith, and US Capitol Police Officer Howie Liebengood — eligible for death benefits.
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