News

The Department of Justice (DoJ) hosted a conference call on June 24 to give stakeholder organizations an update on the processing of Public Safety Officer’s Benefits (PSOB) claims under the Hometown Heroes Survivor’s Benefits Act. At the time of the call, DoJ had received 310 Hometown Heroes applications, of which 146 had been approved, 92 denied with 69 cases still pending. Thirty-nine claims that were initially denied are currently pending appeal. Out of 14 cases that have been ruled on so far, 12 have been approved.

 

Almost one year ago, on July 11, 2007, NVFC Chairman Philip C. Stittleburg spoke at a press conference in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, calling on DoJ to start making awards on Hometown Heroes claims. At the time, seven awards had been made, 47 denied and 199 were pending. Some of the pending cases were years old going back to when the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act passed in 2003.

 

“From the language of the law to the clearly expressed intent of Congress, the Department of Justice should be paying benefits in cases where a public safety officer died from heart attack or stroke within 24 hours of participating in emergency response,” Stittleburg said at the time. “The Department of Justice needs to start making these payments today, and Congress should investigate why three and a half years after passage of the law so few payments have been made and so many denials and pending cases exist.”

 

Last October, DoJ published two guidelines to clarify that information discovered in medical and autopsy reviews would not be used to disqualify applicants and that emergency response would be considered ‘non-routine.’ The latter was a particular concern of the NVFC’s as it appeared that DoJ was denying claims based on the premise that emergency response should be considered ‘routine’ for public safety officers with experience.

 

“Emergency response is by its very nature non-routine, stressful and strenuous physical activity,” said Stittleburg at the 2007 press conference. “Ask anyone who actually knows what it is like to respond to an incident and they’ll agree with me.”

 

DoJ is planning to update the PSOB program in coming weeks and all proposed changes will be open for public comment for 60 days. According to DoJ staff, the changes are minor and will not negatively affect public safety officer eligibility.