Public Safety Officers Benefits
The Public Safety Officers Benefit (PSOB) is a one-time death or disability benefit provided to the family of a public safety officer who suffers a fatal or permanently disabling injury in the line of duty. There are several active pieces of legislation that would update the statute authorizing PSOB to make certain emergency responders eligible to receive the benefit.
S. 1696, the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Improvement Act of 2011, was introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on October 12, 2011, and would make several changes to the PSOB program, including: making employee and volunteer members of private, non-profit EMS agencies eligible to receive PSOB; clarifying that a public safety officer who dies as a result of a vascular rupture caused by line-of-duty activity qualifies for PSOB under the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act; making individuals who enrolled in a formal training program to become public safety officers eligible for PSOB under certain circumstances. The NVFC supports several provisions in S. 1696, including the language addressing non-profit EMS agencies and vascular ruptures, but has not adopted a position on the bill.
The NVFC has endorsed the Fire Police Fairness Act (H.R. 1348/S. 1315), which would make fire police officers – defined in the bill as “an individual who: (1) is serving in accordance with state or local law as a member of a legally organized public safety agency who is not a law enforcement officer, a firefighter, a chaplain, or a member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew; and (2) provides scene security or directs traffic in response to any fire, rescue, or police emergency or at a planned special event” – eligible to receive PSOB.
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