Sponsors (7)
The bill increases protections, training, and data-driven guidance to encourage people to seek help for overdoses and reduce deaths, but it leaves some legal gaps, state-by-state inconsistencies, funding trade-offs, and privacy/implementation challenges that may limit or unevenly distribute those benefits.
People who experience or witness an opioid overdose (including low-income and substance-use-affected individuals) are more likely to call for and receive timely help because the bill expands Good Samaritan protections, funds awareness campaigns, and clarifies who is covered.
Bystanders who administer naloxone or other covered reversal drugs face reduced civil liability risk, encouraging prompt bystander intervention.
First responders, health providers, and local agencies will receive more training (including via Edward Byrne/JAG funding) to improve overdose response and coordination.
People who fear law enforcement (including low-income individuals, immigrants, and people with outstanding warrants) may still be deterred from calling 911 because the bill's ‘seek medical assistance’ language can include reporting to law enforcement and arrests/evidence seizure remain possible.
The bill could create a patchwork of protections across states (federal protection only where states lack equivalent immunity), producing public and responder confusion about who is protected and when.
Redirecting Edward Byrne/JAG funds or state grant money toward outreach and training may divert limited resources away from other treatment, prevention, or criminal-justice priorities.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Creates federal Good Samaritan protections for administering or seeking help for opioid overdoses, funds awareness/training via existing grants, and mandates a GAO evaluation within two years.
Introduced July 22, 2025 by Joseph Neguse · Last progress July 22, 2025
Establishes federal Good Samaritan protections for people who in good faith administer an opioid overdose reversal drug (like naloxone) and for people who seek medical assistance for an overdose, limits certain federal prosecutions and civil liability in those circumstances, and authorizes federal public-awareness and training activities to increase use of those protections. It also allows certain Byrne/JAG grant funds to support law enforcement training about the protections, permits states to use existing federal public‑health grant funds for awareness and training about state Good Samaritan laws, and requires a GAO report within two years evaluating state and local Good Samaritan law implementation and grant-funded outreach efforts. The bill defines covered terms, preserves law-enforcement authorities in specified circumstances, requires federal and state cooperation with the GAO review, and seeks data-sharing and evaluation to measure impacts on overdose calls, naloxone use, emergency visits, and fatalities.