APA Services has endorsed new legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and John Cornyn (R-TX) to help the families of police officers who struggle with mental health issues or die by trauma-linked suicides. APA Services assisted in the drafting of this important bill to better provide for public safety officers and their families.
The Public Safety Officer Support Act is a companion bill to U.S. Representative David Trone’s (D-MD) H.R.3071 that was introduced in May. Additional U.S. senators supporting the Senate legislation at the time of introduction include Dick Durbin (D-IL), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Cory Booker (D-NJ). APA was featured as an endorsing organization in Senator Duckworth’s press release, which also included endorsements from the Fraternal Order of Police, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the National Association of Police Organizations, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, the National Sheriffs Association, Blue H.E.L.P., the National Border Patrol Council, and the United States Capitol Police Labor Committee.
This legislation would allow officers to seek disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by directing the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) program to designate work-related PTSD and acute stress disorder as a line of duty injury for eligible officers as well as those who are permanently disabled as a result of attempted suicide. Current federal law restricts the PSOB program to only include physical injuries—excluding support for mental health. The legislation also permits families of fallen police officers to apply for death benefits if their family member’s suicide resulted from on-the-job duties. The bill aligns PSOB’s eligibility with the U.S. military, which already acknowledges suicides by servicemembers as deaths in the line of the duty. The legislation aligns with APA’s ongoing work to prevent suicide and reform policing.
For more information, contact Ben Vonachen, senior director of congressional and federal relations.