Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick Applauds U.S. Senate Passage of the HEARTS Act

WASHINGTON D.C. ─ Today, Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (FL-20) applauded the U.S. Senate’s passage of the HEARTS Act, which includes her bill, the Access to AEDs Act.
The Access to AEDs Act, introduced by Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick in March 2023, would direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to elementary and secondary schools partnered with nonprofit healthcare organizations to develop and implement a comprehensive program to promote defibrillation access. These grants can be used to purchase new CPR and AED equipment and provide training to students, staff, and volunteers.
“As a mom and Member of Congress, I’m on a mission to expand life-saving healthcare tools to children nationwide by equipping schools with AEDs and training for cardiac emergencies,” said Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. “By increasing access to these vital tools, we can protect our schoolchildren when disaster strikes. I am proud to help advance the HEARTS Act of 2024, which aims to prevent tragedies like those we witnessed with NFL player Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills. The HEARTS Act ensures families can feel confident about their children's safety at school. It includes my Access to AEDs Act, which increases survival rates from sudden cardiac arrests, allowing kids to return home safely after emergencies. I look forward to President Biden signing this critical piece of legislation into law,” she concluded.
Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is a life-threatening emergency caused by a malfunction in the heart’s electrical system or structure, caused by an abnormality from birth or one that develops over time. Annually, nearly 600,000 Americans suffer from SCA. More than 7,000 youth under the age of 18 suffer from SCA annually in the United States, with student-athletes being more than 3.5 times as likely to experience SCA as non-athletes. Survival from SCA more than doubles when a bystander uses a publicly available AED as compared to waiting for an AED shock after the arrival of emergency responders.
The legislation has been endorsed by the American Heart Association, the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, the Women’s National Basketball Association, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Major League Soccer, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Who We Play For, the American College of Cardiology, American Red Cross, Parent Heart Watch, Simon’s Heart, Heart of the Game, Eric Paredes Save a Life Foundation, Youth Sports Safety Alliance/National Athletic Trainers’ Association, the National Alliance for Youth Sports, the American Federation of School Administrators, the National Association of State EMS Officials, the National Association of EMS Physicians, the Heart Rhythm Society, Defibtech, In A Heartbeat, the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, the John Taylor Babbitt Foundation, A Piece of My Heart Foundation, the National Association of School Nurses, and Every Second Counts, CPR.
Read the full text of the bill here.