Sponsors (2)
The bill creates a statutory DHS framework to expand mental-health, suicide-prevention, and family support for law-enforcement personnel, but its real-world effect depends on future funding and faces privacy, implementation, and scope limits.
DHS law enforcement officers and agents gain an established, evidence-based mental health and suicide-prevention program that provides training, peer support, and targeted resiliency services.
Families and surviving family members of officers who die by suicide receive targeted support and resiliency programs.
The bill mandates confidential, voluntary data collection and research on mental health and suicides to identify trends and best practices that can improve services across DHS components.
Program staffing and expansion rely on future appropriations, so benefits could be limited or uneven if Congress does not provide sufficient funding.
Confidential, voluntary data collection still carries a risk of inadvertent privacy breaches that could expose sensitive personally identifiable information of employees.
Preserving component authority to make fitness-for-duty or security determinations (limits on automatic referrals) may deter some employees from seeking help despite nondisclosure safeguards.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a DHS program under the Chief Medical Officer to provide suicide prevention, mental health support, peer counseling, data collection, and family services for DHS law enforcement.
Official title: Establish the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Program, and for other purposes.
Introduced August 1, 2025 by Gary C. Peters · Last progress August 1, 2025
Creates a DHS Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Program run by the DHS Chief Medical Officer to prevent suicide and improve resilience among DHS law enforcement officers and agents. The program will set policies and standard operating procedures, collect confidential data for research and evaluation, run training and outreach, provide family and survivor support, establish a peer-support advisory council, and coordinate with DHS components and community partners. The Workplace Health and Wellness Coordinator will manage the program under the Chief Medical Officer, who must issue an implementing directive and brief Congress within 180 days and provide annual briefings through FY2027; the program is voluntary and places limits on the use and protection of personally identifiable information.