Senator Collins Applauds Passage of HEARTS Act

Senator Collins was the first Republican Senator to sponsor the Access to AEDs Act, supported by NFL player Damar Hamlin, whose life was saved by an AED after going into sudden cardiac arrest during a game in 2023.

Washington, D.C. - The Senate unanimously passed the Cardiomyopathy, Health Education, Awareness, Research, and Training in Schools (HEARTS) Act, bipartisan legislation that will create a grant program at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) training and the purchase of more AED devices in schools. The bill now heads to the President's desk to be signed into law.

The HEARTS Act includes key provisions of the Access to AEDs Act, bipartisan legislation cosponsored by U.S. Senator Collins to purchase and provide training for AEDs in public elementary and secondary schools. Senator Collins has been a leader on AED access since she introduced the Rural Access to Emergency Devices (Rural AED) Act, which unanimously passed the Senate in 2000. She also led the Automatic Defibrillation in Adam's Memory (ADAM) Act with Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), which became law in 2003.

Senator Collins was the first Republican to sponsor the Access to AEDs Act, which is supported by National Football League (NFL) player and advocate Damar Hamlin, whose life was saved by an AED after going into sudden cardiac arrest during a game in 2023. She helped champion its passage through the Senate after hearing directly from constituents about the heartbreaking consequences when there is a lack of access to AEDs. In 2000, Randi Clatchey of Winslow lost her 17-year-old son Josh to a sudden cardiac arrest event that occurred during a high school pep rally. No AED device was available at the school. According to the American Heart Association, in schools with AEDs, children who experience cardiac arrest are seven times as likely to survive as children in schools without AEDs.

"AED devices have been proven to save lives, as they did for Damar Hamlin following the hit that almost took his life while his teammates and millions of Americans watched," said Senator Collins. "The passage of this bipartisan legislation is the result of months of advocacy, and will expand the presence and use of lifesaving AED technology as well as support the training needed to effectively treat cardiac events in schools."

"Every second counts when someone experiences a cardiac arrest, and schools can't wait one more minute to have the resources they need to save lives," said Nancy Brown, Chief Executive Officer of the American Heart Association. "We are grateful to the bill's many champions in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sens. Cory Booker and Susan Collins and Reps. Frank Pallone, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Bill Posey, who have worked for almost two years to make schools across the country safer for students, staff and visitors."

Following a tackle in a January 2023 NFL game, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a rare condition known as commotio cordis, a disruption of heart rhythm that occurs as a result of a blow to the area over the heart at a particular instance during the cycle of a heartbeat. The Bills medical team performed CPR on Hamlin and used an AED-efforts that ultimately saved his life. Since his recovery, Hamlin has advocated on Capitol Hill for increased training and use of AED's nationwide for athletes at every level of sport.

This bill is supported by the American Heart Association, the Maine Heart Association, Who We Play For, and the National Football League.

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