Katherine Fitzgerald – The Buffalo News, N.Y.
(TNS)
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling it a touchdown for Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin.
On Tuesday, the Cardiomyopathy Health Education, Awareness, Research and Training in Schools – HEARTS – Act was passed in the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent. The legislation will help put more automated external defibrillators (AEDs) into schools and help make CPR training more accessible across America.
Bills safety Damar Hamlin joins Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to promote the HEARTS Act during an event Monday at Cheektowaga Central High School. The legislation would put more automated external defibrillators in schools, like the one that helped save Hamlin when he suffered a cardiac arrest on the field during a game in 2023.
“Damar and I formed the perfect team, bringing together teachers, healthcare leaders and athletes to make sure every student has access to the kind of life-saving care he did,” Schumer said in a statement. “This legislation goes beyond the field and its impacts will stretch thousands of miles outside Buffalo to help millions of kids. Now, the HEARTS Act is headed to the President’s desk to be signed into law and save lives.”
On Monday, Schumer said that if the bill passes the Senate, President Biden said he would sign it into law. Schumer reiterated that Tuesday in a phone interview with The Buffalo News. It was passed by the House of Representatives in September.
“I’m beyond humbled that I’m able to take my experience with cardiac arrest & help to inspire this lasting change,” Hamlin posted on X on Wednesday. “This new law will help provide AEDs in schools, create emergency management plans and provide education to teach CPR.”
Hamlin has been involved throughout the process.
“I just have to give Damar tremendous credit,” Schumer told The Buffalo News. “After his bout on the floor at the game, he never gave up, and he said he wanted to turn his personal tragedy into a mission to save others.
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The Buffalo Bills safety joined United States Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in the Cheektowaga Central High School gym Monday morning to announce that the Cardiomyopathy Health Education, Awareness, Research and Training in Schools – HEARTS – Act will be voted on by the U.S. Senate this week.
“And I got to thank him for his courage, his partnership, his dedication. … I told him I would not rest till we got this bill passed, and tonight, we did it.”
The bill also will establish a grant program to provide AEDs and CPR training in public schools.
Schumer was pleased with the unanimous support both for the strong backing of the bill but also because it will shorten the process.
“In an era of partisanship, there are many things that can be bipartisan,” Schumer said. “And this is one of them.”
The bill had support from outside of Hamlin and the Senate, including from the American Heart Association and from the NFL.
At a Monday event, Schumer announced in Cheektowaga that he would bring the bill to the Senate floor. The NFL’s EVP of Communications, Public Affairs & Policy, Jeff Miller, was on hand, as well.
“The most impressive part is Damar’s leadership and his ability, over the last almost two years now, to keep the momentum around an issue that a lot of people probably would have forgotten about if it weren’t for his leadership and insistence on it,” Miller told The News.
“And so, his ability to grab the attention of the Senate Majority Leader and the entire United States Congress and the Senate to pass this bill is quite remarkable.”
Since Hamlin collapsed in cardiac arrest in Jan. 2023, there have been many meaningful ripple effects as the safety continues to use his platform to help prevent cardiac tragedies for others. Now, his impact can move to the federal level.
“He lit a candle today,” Schumer said. “What he did and what we did together is saving lives. There will be countless number of young, young kids in schools who will live because their schools have AEDs and their schools have adequate CPR training.”
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