TBI and PTSD Law Enforcement Training Act

I thank the Republican whip for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the House will meet at 12 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. and will recess shortly thereafter. At approximately 11 a.m., the House will meet in joint session with His Excellency Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, Greece. Votes are expected in the House on Tuesday thereafter.

On Wednesday, the House will meet at 12 p.m. for legislative business.

On Thursday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business.

The House will consider Chairman Scott's H.R. 7309, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2022, which is an important part of the Make It In America agenda. Now more than ever, businesses need skilled workers, and it is essential that we reauthorize WIOA to expand access to skills training for high-demand, high-wage jobs.

Mr. Speaker, the House will also consider H.R. 7688, the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act, introduced by Representatives Kim Schrier and Katie Porter. This critical legislation seeks to give the Federal Trade Commission greater authority to rein in excessive gas prices. This bill would protect consumers against irresponsible actors in oil and gas who would artificially inflate prices for extra profit, and it will help Americans struggling with higher energy costs.

Mr. Speaker, the House will also consider two bills under suspension of the rules in recognition of National Police Week.

Mr. Speaker, 23,229 of our fellow citizens have lost their lives, over the course of the existence of our country, in law enforcement, in doing their duties and protecting us and protecting our property.

The first of those bills is H.R. 6943, the Public Safety Officer Support Act, bipartisan legislation that would expand eligibility for the Public Safety Officers' Benefit program to include stress and trauma-related injuries and death by suicide for law enforcement officers and their families.

Tragically, Mr. Speaker, that happens too often as a result of the trauma and stress which our police officers around the country confront.

The second bill is H.R. 2992, the TBI and PTSD Law Enforcement Training Act, again bipartisan legislation, Mr. Speaker, that would require the Department of Justice to develop crisis intervention training tools for law enforcement agencies so they can better equip officers to respond to individuals with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, some of the most dangerous confrontations that our officers have.

The House will also consider, Mr. Speaker, H.R. 6531, the Targeting Resources to Communities in Need Act of 2022, sponsored by Jim Clyburn and Hal Rogers, the ranking member on the Appropriations Committee. Unfortunately, that failed on suspension, so it is coming back under a rule.

We will also consider S. 2938, legislation to designate the United States Courthouse and Federal Building located at 111 North Adams Street in Tallahassee, Florida, as the Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building, which was sponsored by Senator Marco Rubio, Republican Member of the United States Senate.

The House will consider other bills under suspension of the rules. The complete list of suspensions will be announced by the close of business today.

In addition, Mr. Speaker, we obviously will be ready at any time that the Senate can pass assistance to the extraordinary, brave, and courageous Ukrainians, who are confronting the Russian criminal invasion of their country unprovoked, unwarranted, and unjustified.

We will have that legislation as soon as it comes back here considered, hopefully, on this floor so that we can get some $40 billion in military and humanitarian assistance that is needed in Ukraine so critically.

It is a sad thing that we passed this bill Tuesday night, and it has been sitting in the Senate with essentially now one Senator, one Republican Senator, Mr. Paul of Kentucky, holding it up. I am hopeful that the Senate can move it over to us quickly.

We passed it in an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion when it was here, so that is also a possibility, Mr. Speaker, to be on the floor next week.

Will the gentleman yield just on that point?

On just that point, the gentleman mentioned this the last time we had a colloquy and pointed out that the drilling and processing of petroleum products are the cleanest in the world. You made that point last week, and you have just made it now.

Does the gentleman know why that is the case?

Correct.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, we have had this discussion before. I am going to take a little bit of time to--because if you just listen to the Republican whip, you would think that America is bereft of production of oil, or of LNG, or of petroleum-based products.

I want to go through what America is doing, what the increase has been, and what can be done.

First of all, the United States is the largest producer of oil in the world--18.61 million barrels per day. Saudi Arabia is about half of that, at 10.8. Russia is slightly less than Saudi Arabia; Canada about half of what Russia is doing; China about half, a little less than half, of what Russia is doing. So, we are the largest producer of petroleum products.

We import some, and that is largely based on the type of petroleum products that we use. On crude oil we produced 11.6 million barrels in February 2022. The all-time high was 12.9, almost 13 million barrels.

When Trump took office, we produced 8.8 billion barrels in January 2017. In 2008, we produced 5 million barrels. We more than doubled that in a decade from that 5 million.

Oil production is up more than 700,000 billion barrels from January to December 2021. It is up. It is very substantially up. Oil production is projected to grow more than 1 million barrels this year alone.

The U.S. rig count--this is important because these are the rigs that are in operation. The U.S. rig count is at a current level of 705, up seven from a week ago, and 257 from 1 year ago--a 57 percent increase.

So the presentation that somehow we are handcuffed in producing petroleum products is simply not true. In terms of natural gas, the United States is also the largest producer of natural gas in the world, at 3 trillion--3.109 billion cubic feet. Russia is second, Iran is third, and China is fourth, and Qatar is fifth.

In December of 2011, Mr. Speaker, the U.S. was producing 82.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas. That was in 2011. In December 2021, we are now producing 118 billion cubic feet, a 45 percent increase in 10 years. Again, to hear the

whip talking about it, it would be as if we have been somewhat constrained and are not doing our job.

Now, I happen to have an export company in my district, Calvert Cliffs, a nuclear facility. Right south of Calvert Cliffs is an export facility for LNG, in Cove Point, Maryland. In October 2021, 66 percent of the deliveries went to Asia, 34 percent went to Europe.

In February and March of this year, it is now 80 percent to Europe and 20 percent to Asia.

Why is that? So that we can meet the cutoff that has either happened because Russia did it or it has happened because the Europeans have stopped buying, in some respects, Russian product.

In any event, at the end of 2021, the U.S. had a peak export capacity of 11.6 billion cubic feet per day. By the end of 2022, that figure is expected to increase by 20 percent. This is not a country that is locking down the production of oil.

In addition, let me point out that there are--I want to get the right figure--oil and gas companies already have 26 million acres of public lands to drill on and over 11 million acres of Federal waters that are currently at their disposal. They have 37 million acres in total. Nothing is stopping these companies from drilling there, if they choose to do so.

The industry, Mr. Speaker, holds 9,000 unused approved permits right now. There are 9,000 approved permits to drill, which they are not using.

Last fall, the Biden administration put 80 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for auction; unfortunately, the court overturned that. There has not been a pursuit of that, as the whip will point out, since that time. The point is that the response to that offer got a 2 percent response for 1.7 million acres out of the 80 million acres that were offered.

Now, the reason I took some time to go through these figures--nobody ought to be confused by the fact that what we are experiencing is a cause of the President's proper view that we need to move to alternative fuels, a proper view that we need to, as the whip has pointed out, have safe production, safe processing, energy efficient, but also environmentally sensitive production of our oil products. All of which we are doing.

I want to make it very clear that my personal view is we need to make sure that Europe has product, period, for national security reasons and, as the whip points out, for environmental reasons. There ought to be no confusion that oil production in this country is doing very well.

Now, why do some companies say they are not producing a lot? Because they are making a lot of money, a lot of profits, and buying back stock. That enhances the value of that stock. It enhances the value of the company. It enhances the value of the CEO. I don't criticize them for that.

Very frankly, we are at war. A dictator has invaded, without justification, a friendly country, Ukraine. They have fought back with extraordinary valor. What we really ought to do is talk together about how we can make sure that we bring gas prices down.

Now, whether the FTC decides--as the gentleman has pointed out, Mr. Speaker--whether or not there is gouging, if they don't decide that then, as Secretary Granholm observed, they are not sure, so be it. If they are gouging--if they are incorrectly charging consumers a higher price just because they can, then we ought to know about that.

That is what this bill is about, and that is going to be discussed next week. There ought to be no confusion, we are producing a lot of oil. We are producing a lot of LNG. We are trying to provide for our own needs and the needs of those who are confronting tyranny in Europe and are confronting shortages in Europe, which is driving up prices.

For the gentleman to say that these are Biden prices is simply not the case. Biden didn't have anything to do with these prices. We were producing more petroleum products. What happened is the cartels, which have done so--and I am old enough to remember what happened in the early 1970s--the cartels are controlling supply.

As a result, the shortness of supply and the increase in demand--why? Because we dealt with the pandemic. We got shots in arms. Once we got shots in arms and we are not wearing masks on the floor anymore, we are in better shape health-wise.

So what are people doing? They are going out and driving. Demand is up and supply is being kept down by the cartels, not by Joe Biden.

This evidence of the companies not producing more product--I get it. They are getting very high prices.

So why should they produce more product? If you produce more product and if you want to sell more product to make more money--but they are making a lot of money right now and they are buying stock back. The dividends are being paid at a healthy rate. So here we are.

Mr. Speaker, I would tell the gentleman that we are going to deal with both the supply side, which is important, but I also want to make sure that we aren't gouging consumers in the process.

It is unfortunate that at a time of war that we spend all our time blaming our own President.

It is unfortunate that when the Europeans put themselves over the objections of numerous administrations in a place where they had dependence on Russia, Russia has no leverage over us. We don't need Russia for energy. As a matter of fact, we voted overwhelmingly to stop buying any petroleum products from Russia which I supported strongly. On this side of the aisle and on the other side of the aisle we supported that strongly.

The fact of the matter is the gentleman refuses to recognize 80 million acres--now, it was overturned by the courts later--80 million acres. He says all these people want to produce it and they want to look to new places, and they want to find oil someplace. There was a 2 percent of response.

Mr. Speaker, 1.7 million acres out of 80 million acres were bid on. That doesn't sound to me like a stampede to find it.

But let me tell you what he doesn't tell the American people, Mr. Speaker, when he is making that presentation. And you would think the Biden administration has clamped things down. The Biden administration approved more drilling permits in 2021 than the Trump administration approved in the first 3 years they were in office. Let me say that again: The Biden administration approved more permits in the first year of their term than the Trump administration did in the first 3 years of their term.

So when he says: Oh, the Biden administration is shutting it down and that is why we are having the problem; we are having the problem because Russia--the second, third producer of petroleum products in the world--is an irresponsible dictatorship run by one man, essentially, who wants to use petroleum products as leverage. And he had leverage on the Europeans, and he had leverage certainly on the Ukrainians. They used energy as a bludgeon.

In addition to that, the oil companies were making huge profits as these prices kept going up. So they didn't go out and do a lot of drilling. They didn't bid on a lot of new opportunities that maybe they could have produced oil on. They didn't bother.

Why?

Because they were making so much money. Now, that is a business judgment. But the effect of not doing it meant that as demand went up and less of a supply, not just from their actions but from the actions of the Saudis, others, and the cartel, again, three times as many permits were authorized in the first year of the Biden administration than 3 years in the Trump administration.

So don't tell me about Donald Trump and the free market. The free market is one reason why this is happening. I am for the free market because sound business judgments work: we are making a lot of money, with that money we are going to buy back stocks; it will make the remaining stocks more valuable; we are going to pay good dividends; our stock value is going to go up, and everybody is happy--except the consumer, of course, because supply on the world markets--and it is a world market price, it is not Biden's price, it is the world market price--have gone up because demand is up and supply is down.

So I don't know how the gentleman rationalizes his comments about Biden constricting petroleum production when the permits issued are three times--or said a different way--in 1 year three times the number of permits that Mr. Trump issued in the first 3 years of his term. I wish we would get off this and really focus on the enemy. I know there is a lot of politics here, but we are at war. We need to produce energy.

As I told my friend, Cove Point is now sending 80 percent, reversing Asia supply to European supply because they need it because we are at war. And we are up in almost every category of production of petroleum products. So we can go on and on and on about this. Rig counts that are producing oil are up 57 percent--57 percent from a year ago--a 57 percent increase in operating rigs. It doesn't sound to me like Biden is shutting people down.

Biden does want a clean environment. Biden does want us to look at alternative energy. That is what he was talking about in the campaign that he wanted to look to that. But President Biden has made it very clear he understands in the short term--short term could be 25 years or 5 years--in the short term, particularly during the course of this war, we need to have all the petroleum products, and we need to have them for ourselves and for our allies.

Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring to the majority leader the schedule for next week.

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the House majority leader.

Mr. Speaker, as we look at some of the bills that will be brought up next week, in the price gouging bill, there are a number of concerns with the way it is not really defined in terms of what price gouging would even be. But as we know, the current state of our energy crisis is really because we, through the Biden administration, have shut down energy production in America.

In fact, just the other day, earlier this week, in the midst of dramatically high gas prices, President Biden announced that he is canceling massive oil and gas lease sales. In the Gulf of Mexico, where there are rich reserves of American energy that could be produced, and Alaska, where there are rich reserves of American energy that could be produced, President Biden said no yet again. And this isn't the first time.

In fact, since he became President, on day one, Joe Biden started attacking American energy. He killed not only the Keystone but the ability to produce and make any new pipelines in America to move energy around our country so that we don't have to import it from countries like Russia. President Biden made us dependent on Russian oil. In fact, he was begging Putin to send us more oil while he is canceling the ability for us to produce our own energy.

You have seen other steps that the President has taken all throughout his Presidency to make it almost impossible to produce American energy, to move American energy, to export American energy. LNG permits are sitting on the desk waiting to be signed for over a year, not a single new LNG export permit to help not just America lower our energy prices but to help our friends around the world, especially in Europe, not need to get energy from bad actors like Putin.

As Putin is, hopefully, going to be pushed to the side in terms of energy that we get, the President continues to turn not to American energy but to turn to other dictators, to go to Iran, to go to Venezuela, while shutting down American energy.

So, we have a bill, and I brought this up to the majority leader a number of times, H.R. 6858, with over 130 cosponsors, a bill that would actually open up American energy so that we can lower gas prices. We can actually do something about it, not try to point the finger and blame this person.

The President tried blaming Putin. Nobody in the country bought it because they knew gas prices were going up dramatically well before Putin invaded Ukraine. In fact, President Biden, by shutting down American energy, allowed Putin to make $700 million a day selling his oil to America and Europe, $700 million a day leading up to the war to help fund the war against Ukraine because President Biden said no to American energy over and over again. This bill would actually fix that.

Now, when you look at the price gouging bill, first of all, Secretary Granholm, the Secretary of Energy, was asked in a committee hearing recently, just about 2 weeks ago, if there was price gouging. She said: I am not sure anyone is saying there is wholesale gouging.

Now, if you read the bill, what we have seen of it so far, it doesn't allow the FTC to take action against the President of the United States, who actually is responsible for the gouging prices, high prices, whatever you want to define ``gouging'' as.

Again, the bill itself is very vague. If you just don't like a high price, you can go blame somebody else, or we could actually do something about it. We could actually bring a bill, like H.R. 6858, that would actually allow us to open up American energy that is here-- great technology, lowest carbon emissions in the world, by the way, as we are now forced to rely on energy from other countries that actually emit more carbon to produce their oil.

I would yield. Especially if the gentleman would tell me we are bringing this up on the floor, I would be happy to yield right now.

Because America has the best standards in the world.

America knows how to do it better.

By the way, it is American innovation that has opened up the ability to produce more energy cleaner than anyone else in the world, and the President of the United States is the one saying no to America. He is not saying no to all energy. He is saying no to the cleanest American energy. But then he is begging foreign countries, which actually produce energy without American standards, begging them to give us our oil at a much higher price than just doing it here in the best place to do it in the world.

It perplexes me why the President of the United States says no to American energy while begging dictators to give us our energy at a higher cost, but that is where we are.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, to say that Joe Biden is not the reason that supply is limited just doesn't match with the facts. Again, just 2 days ago, Joe Biden, not Putin, not the big oil companies, Joe Biden canceled oil and lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico.

Joe Biden canceled lease sales in Alaska.

Joe Biden, as a candidate--this isn't just some new development for Joe Biden--Joe Biden as a candidate for President of the United States said: ``No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill. Period.''

That was Joe Biden as a candidate, and he didn't stop there.

When he became President, on day one he started an attack on American energy. It is crystal clear why.

Now, I am glad the gentleman is bragging about high production levels, but let's not think for a minute that Joe Biden is the reason we have production today. If you understand the oil and gas industry--I was just on a rig in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico 2 weeks ago, one of the largest-producing rigs in the Gulf. Do you know that rig got its first lease in 2002? It took about 10 years to get the first oil. They put private money--all private money; over $10 billion of private money--into developing those leases. There were many leases and permits along the way to finally get to the point where they could bring oil out of the ground, making money to pay back the $10-plus billion, to ultimately get to a point where they could produce over 130,000 barrels today.

If Joe Biden wants to try to dare take credit for those 130,000 barrels today, he needs to go check the record at how long it took to get that oil from lease, permits, out of the ground, to ultimately getting it into world markets, not American markets. Oil companies don't set the price of oil, it is world markets. That oil ultimately depletes, which is why the oil companies are always looking for new opportunities.

The gentleman talks--as the White House has talked--about thousands of permits that are out there. It sounds really good. Understandably, I think people recognize it is a misleading number because many of these permits are for wells that were tried where there is no oil. There is not oil everywhere.

You buy leases to go explore. It is called ``exploration'' for a reason. If it was known reserves--if you go drill right under a gas tank you find oil. If you want to find oil out amongst the natural resources that leases are issued for, you do test wells, you do seismic engineering. By the way, that takes years to go through the process of permitting.

Since Joe Biden has been President they have not issued new leases for seismic. So you might have a 3-mile by 3-mile lease in the Gulf of Mexico that you paid millions of dollars to the Federal Government for years ago, and you are continuing to try to explore those 3 miles by 3 miles that the Federal Government was happy to take the money for, but you can't even get a permit from the Federal Government today to explore that lease--to exercise other permits.

You have to get permits for the pipelines. Not a single new pipeline permit has been issued. Even if you get it out of the ground, the Biden administration doesn't want you to have the ability to move it through to refineries and world markets.

What you see is a recognition by the rest of the world that America has

taken itself off the shelf in terms of the ability to produce energy. Again, Joe Biden is the one who canceled all these sales. Joe Biden is the one who, as a candidate, said there will be no drilling. Cartels love this policy because they know now they control the supply.

America is producing oil today based on permits and actions that were taken years ago. What we are seeing today is an inability to continue developing these leases, which means ultimately they will dry up, as all of those leases do. That is why you are always exploring for the next round of finds.

Those next rounds of finds are not being explored for in America, they are being explored for in other countries, but it is countries that are cartels, countries that are monopolies, so they can control the price.

It is interesting that the gentleman brought up the last time we saw these kinds of prices was in the 1970s under a similar Democrat President who had the same kind of attitude toward American energy. It made our country dependent on foreign energy and it created lines at the pump where people had to wait days to get gasoline.

When you saw President Trump opening up American energy and allowing a free market to produce energy--we don't put those constraints in place when we are operating under a free market, so the cartels have no leverage, Putin has no leverage. The only reason he has leverage is if you have a President like Joe Biden who says we are not going to produce in America.

He said it. He took the actions to follow up on it, including just a few days ago. Amidst high gas prices, he actually took more American energy off the market, giving the cartels more monopoly power to raise prices. I wish we would address that. We have a bill to address that and reverse those bad policies. Unfortunately, I haven't heard the gentleman commit to bringing those to the floor yet.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

So I wish my friend would address that. We have a bill to address that and reverse those bad policies. Unfortunately, I haven't heard the gentleman bring it to the floor yet.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.

We will continue this discussion. I would like to see us bring up the bill that would actually address it. We will see this debate go on next week and beyond.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2992), to direct the Attorney General to develop crisis intervention training tools for use by first responders related to interacting with persons who have a traumatic brain injury, another form of acquired brain injury, or post-traumatic stress disorder, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 2992.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2992, the TBI and PTSD Law Enforcement Training Act, is bipartisan legislation that would require the Department of Justice to develop crisis intervention training tools for law enforcement training agencies so that they can better equip officers to respond to individuals with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.

This is important for the training of law enforcement officials. When I was out of law school, my first job as attorney for the police in Memphis, and for 3\1/2\ years I taught the police in the training academy. This was not part of our training, and it should have been. It was before we got woke, and now that we are woke, we should stay woke, and teach officers about this problem and have them be able to identify it.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 3.2 million and 5.3 million people live with a traumatic brain injury- related disability in the United States, and approximately 7 percent of Americans will experience such a disorder at some point in their lives. These illnesses are especially common among veterans and servicemembers.

Despite the prevalence of TBI and PTSD, many law enforcement officers, and other first responders, are still not adequately trained on how to identify these symptoms. Since many symptoms of traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder, such as confusion, impaired thinking, or irritability, can be mistaken for intoxication and aggression. Law enforcement can misinterpret the behavior of some people exhibiting those symptoms and deadly consequences could follow for first responders and the people they encounter.

This legislation would help ensure that officers are trained to identify those symptoms in order to respond appropriately to crisis calls and to divert individuals toward mental healthcare and treatment and away from the criminal justice system.

Through the Bureau of Justice Assistance, agencies have access to training and resources from the Police Mental Health Collaboration toolkit. H.R. 2992 would enhance the existing program to include crisis intervention training on recognizing the signs of these illnesses and responding to the individuals in crisis.

It requires the CDC to also study occurrences of concussion and TBI among law enforcement officers and first responders; many of whom suffer from this, and they need to be given treatment, if they are.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Pascrell, who is the leader of the Law Enforcement Caucus and a strong voice for law enforcement. I also thank Mr. Bacon and Mrs. Demings, a law enforcement chief, I believe, and Mr. Rutherford, a sheriff, for their dedication to law enforcement, first responders, and the citizens they serve.

This important bipartisan legislation is broadly supported by numerous law enforcement and mental health organizations and would help protect the lives of first responders and the people they encounter.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the honorable, distinguished, and learned gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell).

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I ask everybody to support this important legislation for law enforcement and for mental health. Vote ``aye''. No roll call.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2992, the bipartisan TBI and PTSD Law Enforcement Training Act, that would require the Bureau of Justice Assistance to develop training for law enforcement officers on how best to respond to crisis calls involving individuals suffering from the effects of traumatic brain injuries and posttraumatic stress disorder.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were approximately 2.9 million TBI-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths in the United States in 2014 and TBI's were identified in 25 percent of all injury-related deaths in 2017.

More than 430,000 U.S. service members were diagnosed with a TBI between the year 2000 and 2020.

With the prevalence of TBI and PTSD among the general population, and particularly among military service members, there is a need to increase training for law enforcement officers to recognize the unique challenges of TBI and PTSD and more effectively respond to crisis calls.

TBI and PTSD can have a significant impact on an individual's ability to make decisions, control impulses, or think clearly.

Many of the symptoms of TBI and PTSD, such as confusion, inability to follow directions, and impaired thinking or memory, can be misinterpreted or mistaken for intoxication.

And individuals who suffer from TBI or PTSD may also appear agitated or exhibit impaired emotional functioning, which can be misunderstood as aggression.

These impairments can impede proper communication and cause interactions between law enforcement and civilians to escalate, posing potential safety risks to both parties--when officers are not trained to recognize the signs and symptoms.

Many officer-involved encounters could have led to better outcomes if the officers involved had known: 1) how to recognize that these individuals were in crisis and suffering from the effects of traumatic events; 2) the best forms of interaction with them; and 3) how to maximize officer and subject safety.

H.R. 2992 would require DOJ, through the Bureau of Justice Assistance, to solicit best practices related to recognizing and responding to individuals with TBI and PTSD and to develop Crisis Intervention Training tools for law enforcement agencies to better respond to these potentially catastrophic encounters.

This legislation would incorporate TBI and PTSD training--once developed--into the existing Police Mental Health Collaboration toolkit, a proven, no-cost online resource for law enforcement agencies, made available by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

It would further require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study and understand the prevalence of concussions and Traumatic Brain Injury, specifically, among law enforcement officers and first responders.

Recognizing that Crisis Intervention Training programs have yielded significant benefits for law enforcement agencies, including limiting the need for higher levels of police intervention, reducing officer injuries, and redirecting people in crisis away from the criminal justice system and toward mental health services, this legislation would provide additional resources and support for agencies working to improve public safety and ensure that individuals in their communities receive the care they need.

This legislation would also build upon existing best practices to provide officers, through Law Enforcement Mental Health Learning Sites, additional tools they need to continue to protect the communities they serve and save lives.

I commend Representatives Bill Pascrell, Don Bacon, John Rutherford, and our colleague, Representative Val Demings for introducing this critical, bipartisan legislation and urge my colleagues to join me in support of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, this pandemic has been a grave hardship for our first responders. Men and women in blue have risked their lives every day. Last year was the deadliest ever for law enforcement.

During National Police Week, we honor these heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice. They protect us, and we must have their backs. Period.

I have been co-chair of the Congressional Law Enforcement Caucus for many moons. I know our cops must have the training, the resources, and the personnel they need to keep our communities safe.

This bipartisan Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Law Enforcement Training Act is a vital step. It will provide crises intervention training grants. These Federal funds will help officers handle different interactions with those suffering from TBI and post-traumatic stress disorder.

I founded the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force in 2001, along with Dr. Greenwood. He was a Republican; I am a Democrat. He was from Pennsylvania. He did an outstanding job and continues do it in this area, which is so misunderstood, Mr. Speaker. We didn't get to it until late into Iraq and Afghanistan with our veterans and with our soldiers on the front lines. Of course, it was major injury in both of those wars--post-traumatic stress disorder and TBI, traumatic brain injury.

So forward 20 years, we worked to draw attention to the struggle of millions of Americans living with long-term disabilities caused by traumatic brain injury. Now, of course, we take good care of our vets. Can you imagine, we went to war, and we had no money in the budget. We had no programs to help those who were most injured in the two wars that we got into. We were not prepared, and we suffered tremendous amounts of injuries because of it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Nadler and Chairman Pallone and their dedicated staff for their diligent work to bring the TBI and PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Law Enforcement Training Act to the floor. I also thank Representatives Demings, Rutherford, and Bacon for co-leading this bipartisan effort.

Finally, I thank our law enforcement and TBI community stakeholders who helped us craft and advance this important policy. These past couple of years have been difficult for our communities and especially so for our men and women in uniform.

Mr. Speaker, the House stands with them during Police Week and after 2022. I am honored to present this legislation.