Sponsors (19)
The bill expands access to crisis counseling, 24/7 mental‑health support, peer programs, family education, and mobile crisis units for emergency responders (including 911 telecommunicators), improving responder wellbeing and local capacity, but it requires added federal spending, creates administrative and staffing demands, and may produce coverage gaps due to funding caps and eligibility/definition ambiguities.
Qualified emergency responders — including 911 public safety telecommunicators, firefighters, EMS, and law enforcement — become eligible for federal Stafford Act crisis counseling, training, and related disaster-response resources, expanding who can get post‑disaster mental‑health support.
Qualified emergency responders gain 24/7 access to tailored mental‑health care and a confidential 988 hotline, improving crisis support availability and potentially reducing suicidal crises among responders.
Families of responders receive education and support to recognize mental‑illness signs and encourage treatment, easing reintegration and improving continuity of care after deployments or disasters.
Taxpayers and federal budgets face added cost pressure (explicit $5M/year authorization for 2026–2030) and expanded eligibility may raise demand on limited crisis‑counseling funds, risking diluted services or the need for additional federal spending.
Grant design limits — $150,000 cap per grant and two‑year funding window — may restrict the scale, continuity, and geographic reach of mobile crisis units, leaving large disaster zones or prolonged incidents under‑served.
The bill increases administrative and operational burdens: agencies must update rules/materials to implement new definitions, and sustaining 24/7 confidential‑hotline coverage requires ongoing staffing and training commitments that may be hard to maintain.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Adds 911 dispatchers to federal responder definitions and requires HHS/SAMHSA to create a 24/7 mental health program, hotline, outreach, research, and peer/family support within two years.
Introduced December 10, 2025 by Jill Tokuda · Last progress December 10, 2025
Expands the definition of who counts as an emergency responder to explicitly include public safety telecommunicators (911 dispatchers) and requires the Department of Health and Human Services, through SAMHSA, to create a comprehensive mental health program for these and other qualified emergency response providers. The program must be established within two years, provide 24/7 mental health care and a confidential toll-free hotline routed through the 988 Lifeline, include outreach and family support, fund/coordinate research on best practices, and create a volunteer peer counselor program using active and retired responders.