This bill makes it easier for police officers, firefighters, and other public safety workers to get financial help if they develop cancer from job-related exposure to dangerous substances like radiation or chemicals. Normally, these workers and their families can get death and disability benefits through a federal program called PSOB if they're hurt or killed doing their job, but cancer cases are often hard to prove as work-related. This bill changes that by saying that if a public safety officer gets certain types of cancer and was exposed to something known to cause cancer while working, the government will automatically assume it happened because of their job—without the officer having to prove it. The officer needs to have started their job within 5 years before getting diagnosed, and the diagnosis needs to happen within 15 years of retiring or leaving the job. This matters because firefighters and hazmat workers, for example, are regularly exposed to carcinogens that can cause cancer years later, and this bill removes the burden of proving the connection. The government will also regularly review which cancers qualify for this protection and can add new ones to the list if evidence shows they're linked to job exposures.

Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act of 2024

Klobuchar, Amy

Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act of 2023 This bill extends death and disability benefits under the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program (PSOB) to certain public safety officers who suffer from exposure-related cancer while on duty and their survivors. The PSOB program provides death, disability, and education benefits to public safety officers who are killed or injured in the line of duty and their survivors. The bill specifies that exposure-related cancer shall be presumed to constitute a personal injury in the line of duty if <ul> <li>the public safety officer was exposed to or in contact with heat, radiation, or a carcinogen that is linked to an exposure-related cancer;</li> <li>the officer began serving as an officer not later than 5 years before the date of the diagnosis of an exposure-related cancer and the diagnosis occurred not later than 15 years after the last date of active service; and</li> <li>the exposure-related cancer directly and proximately resulted in the death or permanent and total disability of the officer.</li> </ul> The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) must periodically review the definition of exposure-related cancer. It directs the BJA to add additional cancers to the definition under certain circumstances (e.g., a petition process).