A St. Paul firefighter died from cancer linked to his work on the job, and in his honor, there’s a push on Capitol Hill to help families of fallen firefighters access federal support.
Currently firefighters are only eligible for support under the federal Public Safety Officer Benefits program for physical injuries sustained in the line-of-duty, or for deaths linked to heart attacks, strokes, PTSD and 9/11 related illnesses.
But the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act would extend to more heroes too who get cancer linked to their work, like Captain Mike Paidair.
Paidair died five years ago, six months after he was diagnosed with a form of leukemia. His wife has been pushing for change ever since in his honor.
“Expanding the program to cover these illnesses honors the commitments that we’ve made, and it makes sure that if someone has say, retired, but then gets cancer. It’s not like they’re cut off at that point. Those were some of the issues that a lot of people around the country have been dealing with, where they actually get cancer, but then they say, well, we don’t know what it’s from. And we’re able to make this a very broad definition because of what we’ve seen out in the field,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Klobuchar says the bill has broad bipartisan support and cleared a key hurdle out of committee earlier this year. Now it’s up for consideration in a larger national security package.
This story will be updated.
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