President Joe Biden on Friday signed into law a measure authored by U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal to improve disability and retirement benefits for federal firefighters.
The Federal Firefighter Fairness Act is designed to do so by ensuring federal firefighters receive the same access to job-related disability and retirement benefits as state, county and municipal firefighters.
“Federal firefighters have been on the front lines in California fighting wildfires as we experience longer and more extreme fire seasons, but their threshold to prove work-related illness is much higher than their state or local counterparts here in California and around the nation,” Rep. Carbajal said in a news release.
“That’s why I have worked for years to get this bipartisan commonsense bill to improve federal firefighters’ health and retirement benefits across the finish line,” he said. “I’m proud today, after five years sponsoring and advocating for this bill, to see it signed into law by President Biden.”
The Federal Firefighters Fairness Act creates the presumption that federal firefighters who become disabled by serious diseases — including heart disease, lung disease, certain cancers and infectious diseases — contracted the illness on the job.
The International Association of Fire Fighters estimates this measure would improve benefits for more than 10,000 firefighters across the U.S.
“Cancer is the No. 1 killer of firefighters, and eliminating this threat is the IAFF’s highest priority,” said Edward A. Kelly, IAFF general president.
The Federal Firefighters Fairness Act of 2021 was introduced by Rep. Carbajal and Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska; Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., in April 2021.
The measure, which Rep. Carbajal has sponsored since his first year in Congress, first passed the House in May 2022 and again as a part of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Delaware, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, are the lead sponsors of a bipartisan companion bill in the U.S. Senate.
email: kzehnder@newspress.com
