Calling on the PA General Assembly to take swift and decisive action to pass Pennsylvania Senate Bill 110, also known as Bryan's Law, to amend the Emergency and Law Enforcement Personnel Death Benefits Act to extend line-of-duty death benefits to surviving spouses and children of first responders who die from job-related trauma, including PTSI-related suicide, ensuring equitable treatment for their families.

WHEREAS, First responders, such as firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and law enforcement officers selflessly serve the public and face traumatic events in the course of duty; and

WHEREAS, Current Pennsylvania law provides death benefits to first responders who die in the line of duty, but does not extend the same benefits to those who die by suicide as the result of a personal injury sustained in the line of duty due to post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI); and

WHEREAS

,

Senate Bill 110 would amend the Emergency and Law Enforcement Personnel Death Benefits Act to provide that a first responder who dies by suicide due to diagnosed or qualifying PTSI related to their job may be presumed to have died as a direct and proximate result of personal injury sustained in the line of duty; and

WHEREAS, The Bill is named in honor of Pennsylvania State Trooper Bryan F. Gray, a veteran and trooper who died by suicide as a consequence of service-related trauma. His experience highlights the toll of constant exposure to traumatic events experienced by first responders; and

WHEREAS, Bryan’s Law is modeled after the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Safety Officer Support Act of 2022, a federal law that passed with bipartisan support in Washington in which death benefits are provided to survivors of first responders whose death was a result of injury sustained in the line of duty, including death by suicide; and

WHEREAS, The City Council of Philadelphia encourages the members of the Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives to act swiftly to enact Bryan’s Law as a reflection of the Commonwealth’s gratitude for first responders and their families; now, therefore, be it be

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby calls on the PA General Assembly to take swift and decisive action to pass Pennsylvania Senate Bill 110, also known as Bryan’s Law, to amend the Emergency and Law Enforcement Personnel Death Benefits Act to extend line-of-duty death benefits to surviving spouses and children of first responders who die from job-related trauma, including PTSI-related suicide, ensuring equitable treatment for their families.

End