[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5334 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5334

To ensure that a public safety officer who suffers a fatal heart attack 
 or stroke while on duty shall be presumed to have died in the line of 
     duty for purposes of public safety officer survivor benefits.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 5, 2002

Mr. Etheridge (for himself, Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Weldon of Pennsylvania, Mr. 
 Oxley, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Pascrell, Mr. Smith of Michigan, and Mr. Watt 
of North Carolina) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
                     the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To ensure that a public safety officer who suffers a fatal heart attack 
 or stroke while on duty shall be presumed to have died in the line of 
     duty for purposes of public safety officer survivor benefits.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits 
Act of 2002''.

SEC. 2. FATAL HEART ATTACK OR STROKE ON DUTY PRESUMED TO BE DEATH IN 
              LINE OF DUTY FOR PURPOSES OF PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER 
              SURVIVOR BENEFITS.

    Section 1201 of the Omibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 
1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subsection:
    ``(k) For purposes of this section, if a public safety officer dies 
as the direct and proximate result of a heart attack or stroke suffered 
while on duty or within 24 hours after participating in a training 
exercise or responding to an emergency situation, that officer shall be 
presumed to have died as the direct and proximate result of a personal 
injury sustained in the line of duty.''.

SEC. 3. APPLICABILITY.

    Subsection (k) of section 1201 of such Act (as added by section 2) 
shall apply to deaths occurring on or after January 1, 2002.
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