[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 919 Introduced in House (IH)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 919

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

                           February 26, 2003

Mr. Etheridge (for himself, Mr. Weldon of Pennsylvania, Mr. Hoyer, Mr. 
Oxley, Mr. McHugh, Mr. Spratt, Mr. Deutsch, Mrs. McCarthy of New York, 
    Mr. Smith of Michigan, Mr. Emanuel, Mr. Walsh, Ms. Watson, Mr. 
    McIntyre, Mr. Quinn, Ms. Carson of Indiana, Mr. Wilson of South 
Carolina, Mr. Kind, Mr. Acevedo-Vila, Mr. Serrano, Ms. Kilpatrick, Mr. 
Hinchey, Mr. Markey, Ms. Norton, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Sandlin, Mr. Shimkus, 
 Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, Mr. Watt, Mrs. Maloney, Mr. LoBiondo, Mr. 
Jefferson, Mr. Green of Texas, Mr. Frost, Mr. Price of North Carolina, 
Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Lucas of Kentucky, Mr. Boswell, Mr. Crane, Mr. Allen, 
 Mr. Wexler, Mr. Turner of Texas, Mr. Bell, Mr. Udall of Colorado, Mr. 
McNulty, Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Lampson, Ms. Hooley of Oregon, Ms. Baldwin, 
 Mr. Wu, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Ballance, and Mr. Miller 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''.

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 Omnibus 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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