HERO Act

What it does

• •Establishes a Public Safety Officer Suicide Reporting System within the National Violent Death Reporting System to collect annual data on suicide incidence among public safety officers, disaggregated by age, sex, state, occupation, and employment status.
• •Authorizes grants to nonprofits for establishing peer-support behavioral health and wellness programs in fire departments and emergency medical services agencies, using trained peer counselors from within those agencies.
• •Requires the U.S. Fire Administration to develop and publicly release educational resources for behavioral health professionals about fire department and EMS culture, stressors, and evidence-based therapies.
• •Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop, assemble, and periodically update evidence-based best practices for identifying, preventing, and treating behavioral health issues in public safety officers.

Why it matters

• •The bill addresses suicide among public safety officers by creating systematic national data collection to understand the scope of the problem and track intervention effectiveness, with biennial reporting to Congress.
• •Peer-support programs leverage trusted colleagues within fire and EMS agencies to address behavioral health issues, recognizing the unique culture and stressors of these professions.
• •Resources developed for behavioral health professionals aim to improve treatment quality by educating clinicians about profession-specific challenges, stressors, and evidence-based therapies tailored to public safety workers.

Who is affected

• •Public safety officers, including firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and public safety telecommunicators in career, volunteer, paid-on-call, and combination agencies at federal, state, tribal, and local levels.
• •Fire departments and emergency medical services agencies that may receive grants or implement peer-support programs and incorporate best practices.
• •Behavioral health professionals and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which will host and disseminate suicide data and resources.

What happens next

The bill was introduced in the Senate on November 10, 2026, read twice, and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions for consideration.