On Monday Dec. 9, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that he will bring the lifesaving HEARTS Act to the Senate floor this week for a unanimous consent vote to be passed into law at Cheektowaga Central High School.

“Over the past two years, we have worked tirelessly to make AEDs and CPR training more accessible in our community,” Bills Owner/CEO/President Terry Pegula said. “Through our initiatives, we have supported the training of over one hundred thousand community members, empowering each of them with the knowledge and confidence to act in an emergency. Grants to schools for AEDs will ensure that students, staff, and families have access to critical resources when every second counts. Our team has experienced first-hand the impact of these life-saving measures with Damar Hamlin and Kim Pegula. This bill will make Western New York, and communities around the country safer, and ultimately save lives.”

On Tuesday, Senator Schumer announced the bill passed the senate and will head to the president’s desk.

The HEARTS Act will help bring AED machines into schools across America, as well as ensuring that schools nationwide have cardiac emergency response plans in place and that students and staff are trained in CPR.

“Since experiencing cardiac arrest, I’ve been honored to work with partners who understand how important it is to provide CPR education and have access to AEDs to save lives,” Hamlin said. “I’m very grateful to Senator Schumer for his work making his common-sense legislation a priority. My journey has shown us that no one expects cardiac arrest to happen- and we all need to be prepared. Working together, we have the chance now to protect kids and impact the next generation. I hope that every Senator will lend their support for this bill and that my experience with cardiac arrest will help lead to lasting change.”

Hamlin went into cardiac arrest during a game in January 2023 and the Bills medical team used an AED and performed CPR to save his life. Since that moment, Hamlin has used his inspirational story to help children across the country, working with Schumer to create a new federal program that will help put more AEDs in schools.

Schumer explained that in schools with AEDs, children who experience cardiac arrest are seven times as likely to survive as children in schools without AEDs. He also highlighted the importance of CPR training for students and adults in schools, saying that for every minute without CPR, chances of survival drop by 10%.

Schumer described the bill as being on the one-yard line and encouraged the students in attendance that he hopes it will be “brought into the end zone” and passed into law.

“Damar has used his voice and turned his inspirational story of recovery into a mission to help millions of children,” Schumer said. “This legislation goes beyond the field and stretches thousands of miles outside Buffalo. Let’s get the HEARTS Act into the endzone and bring AEDs to schools across America. This bipartisan legislation will save lives, and everybody should support it.”

To learn more about the AED efforts in Western New York and how you can help, visit the Bills Heart Health Awareness resource page.