Bipartisan bill expands benefits to first responders and families fighting service-related cancers
WASHINGTON D.C. (KEYT) – Bipartisan legislation expanding benefits to first responders suffering from fire response-related cancers nationwide was signed into law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026.
The legislation, originally entitled the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act (H.R. 1269), made the expanded cancer coverage retroactive, meaning first responders and their families can make claims from before the bill was signed into law.
"Occupational cancer is now the leading cause of death among firefighters," stated a 2024 report from the National Library of Medicine. "Three recent meta-analyses of firefighter cancer studies [125,126,127] indicate consensus in an increased risk of bladder, colorectal, skin (melanoma), lymph node (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma), prostate, and testicular cancer [128]. The occupational exposure of firefighting (for both career and volunteer and both men and women) was recently classified as 'carcinogenic to humans' [125]."
Specifically, the new law amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to include exposure-related cancers as a line-of-duty death or disability covered by the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program alongside existing major injury or mental health coverage.
"Firefighters and other first responders put their lives on the line every day, often facing deadly carcinogens in the process," explained Representative Salud Carbajal, a cosponsor of the bill in the House. "Expanding the Public Safety Officer’s Benefits Program to cover service-related cancer deaths is the right thing to do to honor the first responders who made the ultimate sacrifice."
The program is administered by the U.S. Department of Justice and offers disability, death, and educational benefits to first responders who are killed or injured in the line of duty.
"Our first responders epitomize courage and selfless sacrifice, confronting both the immediate perils of their duty which are extreme and the lingering health risks associated with their service," said Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota who cosponsored the bill with Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota in the Senate. "Their exposure to dangerous carcinogens happens on our behalf. When these heroes make the ultimate sacrifice, their families should not have to bear these burdens alone."
In the video below, Sgt. Monica Smith with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office shares emergency information from the front lines of the response to the Mountain Fire in November of last year.
Evacuation Updates on #MountainFire pic.twitter.com/I60m5NApmY
— Ventura County Sheriff (@VENTURASHERIFF) November 6, 2024
In 2021, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety awarded line-of-duty benefits to the widow of St. Paul fire captain Michael Paidar after he died from an aggressive form of Acute Myeloid Leukemia in August of 2020.
According to Senator Klobuchar's Office, this was the first time that a firefighter's family had received benefits for a service-related cancer death and the decision inspired the federal legislation signed into law on Dec. 19 of this year.
"Every day, our nation’s first responders selflessly serve and protect their communities. Unfortunately, through exposures on the job, many are also fighting occupational cancer," explained Micheal Paider's widow, Julie. "As our family knows firsthand, the lives of the first responder and their family are forever changed upon the cancer diagnosis. Mike loved being a career firefighter and paramedic. Losing him to Leukemia in 2020 was devastating not only for our family, but also for his fire family and our communities. This important legislation will honor his legacy and recognize the sacrifices of our fallen, allowing first responders and their families to receive the PSOB [Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program] benefits they rightly deserve."
