John Rutherford: “I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for bringing this bill forward. It is very…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for bringing this bill forward. It is very much needed. I rise, Mr. Speaker, to support the COPS Counseling Act, which is now one step away from reaching the President's desk, I hope. I spent almost 40 years in law enforcement, including 12 as the sheriff of Duval County, Florida. So I can tell you, I have seen, firsthand, the challenges that some officers face in dealing with not just acute stress for many years but the chronic stress over every day that they go to work. Mr. Speaker, it is no secret that law enforcement is a dangerous profession. But these officers face potential life-threatening situations every day they go to work, and that is the chronic stress that really has a significant mental health impact upon these officers. Every day, they put their lives in that breach in defense of our communities. In recent years, we have seen a rise in ambush killings of officers and just overall assaults on officers, attacking them simply for the uniform that they wear. In fact, by just the middle of this year, we experienced as many shootings and killings of police officers as we did for the entire year of 2020. We also witness now the demoralization, the delegitimization, and the defunding of police currently taking place around the U.S. We have also watched law enforcement work through a deadly pandemic, losing so many officers to COVID-19 over these last 2 years.…”