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

WASHINGTON (Tues., Nov 25) – The U.S. Senate Tuesday passed a tri-partisan bill authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) that closes a loophole in survivors’ benefits for the families of public safety officers who die in the line of duty from heart attacks and strokes. 

The Senate passed the “Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act of 2003” (S. 459), which covers public safety officers who suffer fatal heart attacks and strokes while participating in non-routine stressful or strenuous physical activities in the line of duty.  The bill makes their surviving family members eligible for the same benefits as those of officers killed through other means while doing their jobs. The current benefit is $267,494.

Leahy’s bill, cosponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-Ga.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.), first passed the Senate on May 16, 2003.  Leahy led negotiations with House leaders to reach agreement on a compromise version of his bill, which the House approved over the weekend.

A loophole in the Department of Justice’s Public Safety Officer Benefit (PSOB) Program regulations did not allow the survivors of public safety officers – police officers, firefighters, medics and other emergency response personnel – who die of heart attacks and strokes resulting from their duty to receive survivor benefits.  The program was created 30 years ago to help the families of fallen public servants survive their losses.  The Fraternal Order of Police calls the Leahy bill “the most significant expansion of the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits program in decades.”

The loss for these families is just as tragic.  According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 31 firefighters died of heart attacks relating to their jobs in 2002.  The Officer Down Memorial Page estimates that heart attack and cardiac-related deaths account for an average of 13 police officer deaths each year.  Because of the current loophole in PSOB regulations, many of the families of these individuals would be denied federal survivor benefits without Leahy’s bill.

“Heart attacks and strokes are a reality of the high-pressure jobs of police officers, firefighters and medics,” said Leahy, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the PSOB program.  “Our public safety officers put their lives on the line for us, and we owe their families our gratitude, our respect and our help, most of all in their time of need.  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.”

Leahy’s bill has been a high priority for several national organizations representing the nation’s first responders.  In addition to the Fraternal Order of Police, the list of first-responder organizations endorsing the bill also includes the Congressional Fire Services Institute, the National Association of Police Organizations, 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.

A former prosecutor, Leahy has long been an advocate for the law enforcement and public safety community.

In 2001, he 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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