Senate Approves Leahy Bill
To Expand Benefits
For Fallen Public Safety Officers

WASHINGTON (Fri., May 16) – The Senate Friday morning passed a tri-partisan bill authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to plug a gap in survivors’ benefits for the families of public safety officers who die in the line of duty from heart attacks and strokes. 

A loophole in the Department of Justice’s Public Safety Officer Benefit (PSOB) Program does not allow the families of public safety officers – police officers, firefighters and emergency medics – who die of heart attacks and strokes resulting from their duty to receive survivor benefits of $262,000 per family.  The PSOB Program was created three decades ago to help the families of fallen public servants survive their losses.

The gap hits these families hard when tragedy strikes.  Earlier this year, a Vermont firefighter suffered a heart attack while responding to an emergency.  According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 31 firefighters died of heart attacks relating to their jobs in 2002.  Because of the current loophole in the PSOB Program, many of the families of these individuals would not receive federal survivor benefits without Leahy’s bill, the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefit Act of 2003.

“Heart attacks and strokes are a reality of the high-pressure jobs of police officers, firefighters and medics,” said Leahy.  “These are killers that they contend with in their jobs, just like speeding bullets and burning buildings.  They put their lives on the line for us, and we owe their families our gratitude, our respect and our help.  No amount of money can fill the void that is left by these losses, but ending this disparity can help these families keep food on the table and shelter over their heads.  It helps them make the transition into their new lives.”

Leahy’s bill, cosponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-Ga.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.), won approval in the House of Representatives last year, but the Senate failed to act before going out of session.  On Wednesday night, when Leahy accepted the Legislator of the Year Award from the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, he promised them the Hometown Heroes Bill would pass the Senate this year.

The bill passed soon after President Bush, joined by Leahy and other congressional leaders, gathered at the Capitol to mark the annual memorial service for fallen police officers.  Leahy’s bill has been a high priority for several national organizations representing the nation’s first responders.  The list of organizations endorsing the bill includes the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Association of Police Organizations, the Congressional Fire Services Institute, the International Association of Fire Fighters, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the International Association of Arson Investigators, the National Volunteer Fire Council, the National Fire Protection Association, the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians and the American Ambulance Association.

In 2001, Leahy included a provision in the USA PATRIOT Act anti-terrorism law that increased Public Safety Officer Benefits by $100,000 and indexed them to inflation.

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