HEARTS Act Backed by Bills’ Damar Hamlin Signed into Law by President Biden

The HEARTS Act—a law designed to help improve resources and access for heart health in the United States, and one that was backed by Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin—was signed into law by President Joe Biden on Monday.

“It’s super dope, man. Shoutout to Senator Schumer. Shoutout to the Smart Hearts Coalition. Shoutout to the American Heart Association and to my Chasing M’s foundation,” Hamlin told ESPN’s Alaina Getzenberg. “We all came together to make some legacy off the field. I always wanted to, in my life, leave a legacy on the field, but to have a legacy and have meaning and purpose off the field.”

Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest during a Monday Night Football matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 2. 2023. His heart briefly stopped before he was resuscitated on the field by paramedics. Hamlin returned to the NFL last season, though largely as a special teams player. This year, he won the starting safety job for the Bills.

As for the HEARTS Act, Getzenberg wrote that the law “will help put automated external defibrillators in schools and make CPR training more accessible by creating a grant program at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support CPR and AED training in elementary and secondary schools with the purchase of AEDs, funding AED and CPR training, and the development of cardiac emergency response plans.”