Birth of the Hero Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BERA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the passage of my bipartisan measure, H.R. 1646, the Helping Emergency Responders Overcome Act, or the HERO Act.

The HERO Act is the best of what we do in this people's House, which is accessible to our constituents and others, and that is why we love the House of Representatives.

Over 2\1/2\ years ago, two of my fire chiefs, Mike McLaughlin and Maurice Johnson, visited my office here in Washington to talk about some issues. In passing, they also talked about the number of firefighters and first responders that succumb to suicide, and the stresses of the job.

We talked about it and we started to do a little bit of research. We realized we didn't have good statistics on the actual incidence of firefighters or first responders that were succumbing to suicide.

We started to talk to others, the International Association of Firefighters, and we talked to law enforcement. We realized the stresses that these individuals, men and women, who are out there protecting our communities every day, face. They see untold challenges that normal human beings don't see. So we started talking about this.

We looked for those statistics, talked to the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance founder, Jeff Dill, and again, realized we ought to challenge the CDC to collect these statistics, and we ought to do something about it. We ought to help relieve the suffering of these first responders, firefighters, law enforcement individuals.

So we went about writing a bill and working with our partners. That was before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. What we have seen since the pandemic is untold pressures on our frontline healthcare workers, our nurses, the folks in the hospitals. And I want to applaud a fellow doctor, a Republican Member, Mike Burgess, who is the ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Healthcare Subcommittee, he realized this fact. And working together with our staff, we amended the HERO Act to include and recognize the unique stresses that these frontline healthcare workers are facing.

We talked about how they don't need to suffer by themselves, how we could put in place peer-to-peer contacts where folks could reach out, create a space for some of these individuals that might be suffering alone to talk about what was going on.

Mr. Speaker, I also want to thank Chairman Pallone and Ranking Member Walden on the Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as the chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, Ms. Eshoo, for helping get this bill to the floor and getting it passed yesterday evening.

Again, the HERO Act demonstrates what we can do when we come together as Democrats and Republicans, when we listen to our constituents, and we work with those folks that are out there.

I, again, want to applaud the frontline healthcare workers, the firefighters, the law enforcement individuals, and emergency responders that are out there keeping us safe every day. You have got our back, we have got your back. So thank you to all of them.

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