The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER SUPPORT ACT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the in the Senate section section on pages S3911-S3912 on Aug. 3.
The Department is one of the oldest in the US, focused primarily on law enforcement and the federal prison system. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, detailed wasteful expenses such as $16 muffins at conferences and board meetings.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER SUPPORT ACT
Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, this week, the U.S. Senate acted, unanimously, to honor our Nation's dedicated law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency responders by passing the Public Safety Officer Support Act, known as PSOSA.
I was proud to author the bipartisan Public Safety Officer Support Act and want to thank Senator Cornyn and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Durbin for their steadfast leadership and hard work in helping pass this vital legislation that seeks to modernize the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program by recognizing that, when a public safety officer dies by suicide, there should be a rebuttable presumption that the loss should be designated as a line of duty death.
I look forward to President Joe Biden signing the bipartisan Public Safety Officer Support Act into law and remain confident in the U.S. Department of Justice's readiness to effectively implement this important new law. My confidence is rooted in the Department's productive engagement and helpful technical assistance that was provided throughout the development of the final version of PSOSA.
Of course, the Public Safety Officer Support Act would never have passed without the steadfast support and dedication of a wide range of organizations, such as the Fraternal Order of Police, National Association of Police Organizations, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, Sergeants Benevolent Association NYPD, National Association of Attorneys General, National District Attorneys Association, Major County Sheriffs Association, National Sheriffs Association, National Border Patrol Council, United States Capitol Police Labor Committee, BLUE H.E.L.P., The Wounded Blue, American Psychological Association, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, International Union of Police Associations, International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Prison Council, National Narcotics Officers Associations' Coalition, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, National Association for Children's Behavioral Health, International Society for Psychiatric Nurses, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, SMART Recovery, Kennedy Forum, Inseparable, National Council for Mental Wellbeing, National Association for Rural Mental Health, American Mental Health Counselors Association, National Association of Social Workers, Postpartum Support International, National Association of State and Mental Health Program Directors, American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work, and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
This impressive array of support for PSOSA reflects the importance and urgency of fixing a specific flaw in the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program. Under current law, despite public safety officers facing a heightened risk for developing posttraumatic stress and having trauma-induced suicides, family member survivors of police officers and firefighters that commit suicide are excluded from the program. This means that surviving families are often left without any Federal support, State and local survivor annuities, or continued access to their loved ones' health insurance.
Comparatively, the U.S. Armed Forces recognizes that servicemember suicides are line-of-duty deaths. More than 90 percent of the 1,107 Active-Duty Army suicides between 2005 and 2012 were determined to be in the line of duty. Just like our servicemembers, our first responders should be recognized and supported for the mental distress they endure while protecting our communities and responding to emergencies. That includes supporting their surviving families after they are gone.
Once signed into law and implemented, the bipartisan Public Safety Officer Support Act will finally provide grieving families the benefits their loved ones earned while serving their communities as public safety officers and, equally important, help us eliminate the harmful stigma and infliction of emotional distress and pain on survivors that stems from misguided and outdated policies that refuse to designate public safety officer suicides as line of duty deaths.
Now, I want to be clear. Ensuring that public safety officer suicides are considered line of duty deaths for purposes of participating in the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program is about honoring a fallen police officer's or firefighter's life of service. It is about honoring these Americans and caring for their families, just as we do when a public safety officer dies from heart disease or COVID in the line of duty.
Simply put, our bipartisan law will ensure surviving families of fallen public safety officers receive the support their loved ones earned through a life of service.
We are seeking to ensure eligibility for the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program no longer allows the manner of death to negate a career devoted to public service and serving one's community. And that is why it is also important to emphasize that a presumption of a line of duty death is not an absolute.
Just as committing suicide should not deny a public safety officer and their family a line-of-duty death designation, in and of itself, taking one's life would not entitle a disgraced public safety officer who violated their oath of office to receive a Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program benefit.
It is our intent that the U.S. Department of Justice will review and take into account the potential contributing factors to the officer or firefighters' death or injury and consult the agency investigating the cause and manner of death and the agency of the police officer or firefighter, just as the Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program Office is empowered to do in all other claims submitted to the program.
Moving forward, I hope enactment of the Public Safety Officer Support Act inspires the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and other State and local law enforcement memorials to update their respective line-of-duty death criteria to match the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program. After all, our Nation's support of first responder families is particularly critical following the tragic loss of a police officer, a firefighter, or an emergency responder, and these grieving families deserve to be included among the families of the fallen.
In closing, I want to take a moment to recognize the incredible courage, resilience, and strength of the late Officer Jeffrey Smith's widow, Erin Smith, and his parents, Richard and Wendy Smith. Their collective determination and commitment to fixing an unjust system to prevent future families of the fallen from having to experience the emotional pain and financial harm resulting from the denial of a line-of-duty death designation, played a pivotal role in the development and passage of the Public Safety Officer Support Act.
I commend Erin, Richard and Wendy Smith for honoring the service of their loved one and hope that Officer Smith's lasting legacy of spurring a long-needed change in the law provides them with comfort and confidence that his tragic loss was not in vain.
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