Leahy Pushes Administration
To End Its Foot-Dragging In Processing
‘Hometown Heroes’ Survivor Benefits
For First-Responder Families

WASHINGTON (Wednesday, July 11) -- Four years after Congress unanimously passed the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act, the law’s prime sponsor, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Wednesday pressed the Bush Administration to end its foot-dragging in administering the program and to promptly release funds designated for survivor benefits.

Leahy, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, authored the legislation in the Senate in 2003 and has written to President Bush and the Department of Justice asking why only six applications have been approved and why the processing backlog has now grown to nearly 200 pending claims.  Families of fallen public safety officers who suffer fatal heart attacks or strokes in the line of duty or up to 24 hours after a “non-routine stressful or strenuous” line-of-duty activity or training event are eligible for survivor benefits through the Justice Department.  Currently, 198 families of fallen public safety officers are still waiting to hear from the Department of Justice (DOJ) about their claims.  Forty-eight families have been turned down, and only six families have received any benefits from this program.

Following are Leahy’s remarks from a news conference Wednesday in which Leahy, other members of Congress, family members whose claims are still pending, and representatives from the fire and police communities called on the Bush Administration and the Justice Department to release the funds under the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act.

Remarks Of Sen. Patrick Leahy,
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,
Hometown Heroes News Conference
Capitol Hill
July 11, 2007

In November of 2003, Congress unanimously passed the Hometown Heroes Act to extend federal survivor benefits to the families of firefighters, police officers, and EMS responders who die of heart attack or stroke in the line of duty.  That December, with great fanfare, the President signed the legislation into law before a large group of fire service and law enforcement officers.  Then, once the camera lights were turned off, the pending cases almost immediately began piling up at the Justice Department. 

Nearly three years passed before the Justice Department released its final implementation rule – in effect, delaying implementation of the law and disregarding the clear will of Congress to promptly grant these surviving families the death benefits they are due.  Now, nearly four years after our Hometown Heroes bill became law, the Justice Department has approved only six claims – nationwide – and denied 48 families this important benefit, out of the 260 applications the Department has backlogged.  We are here to call the Justice Department’s sorry record of administering this program into account, and to demand action to put this law fully into effect to help the families of these Hometown Heroes.

My frustrations, and the frustrations of the first responder community, grow daily over the Justice Department’s glacial processing of these applications, and I am deeply troubled that the White House has not put more pressure on the Attorney General to implement this law.  They know the Justice Department has stalled this program; we’ve told them, again and again.  We have sent two letters – one to the Attorney General back in April, and one to President Bush back in June – asking that they immediately devise a plan for dealing with the mountain of pending cases.  Our letters have met the same stalling and the same silence from this Administration that we have found on many other oversight issues.

Heart attacks and strokes are a grim fact of life and death in the high-pressure jobs of police officers, firefighters and medics.  They are killers that they face day in and day out, like speeding bullets and burning buildings.  Emergency first responders put their lives on the line for us, and we owe their families our gratitude, our respect and our help.  They are always there for us.  We should be there for them.  For these families, no death payment can fill the void left by these losses, but ending this disparity can help these families keep food on the table and shelter over their heads, allowing them to move on with their lives, as best they can.

The Justice Department immediately should award the families of these brave public safety officers their rightful benefits under the law by expediting all of the outstanding Hometown Heroes claims.  And they should stop making burdensome information requests of those who filed claims, like ten years’ worth of past medical records.  Instead of harassing these grieving families, the Department of Justice should be working with them to honor their lawful claims as promptly as possible. 

We are discovering, once again, that first responders simply are not a high enough priority for these folks.  First responders may not be well enough connected to the powers that be in the Administration, but first responders are directly connected by lifelines to their communities, and that should count for more.

If this situation does not get resolved quickly, I will work with Senator Specter to ensure that those responsible for these endless delays give a full accounting of their actions to the Senate Judiciary Committee and to the American people.

We need heroes, and we have heroes.  And this is not the way to treat our heroes.  We should honor them and respect their families and the sacrifices they have made to help keep our communities safe.

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Letter to President Bush
Letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales