[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 989 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 989

 To provide death and disability benefits for aerial firefighters who 
   work on a contract basis for a public agency and suffer death or 
        disability in the line of duty, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 5, 2003

   Mr. Enzi introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide death and disability benefits for aerial firefighters who 
   work on a contract basis for a public agency and suffer death or 
        disability in the line of duty, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Aerial Firefighter Relief Act of 
2003''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Pilots and crew members of aircraft used to fight 
        wildfires generally work on a contract basis with a State or 
        Federal agency and, as a result, are not eligible for death or 
        disability benefits should they be killed or injured in the 
        line of duty.
            (2) Employer death benefits and life insurance for aerial 
        firefighters are expensive, and a family of an aerial 
        firefighter who dies in the line of duty has to cope not only 
        with the loss of a loved one, but also the additional financial 
        loss of a wage earner.
            (3) It is vital that Congress continue to encourage the 
        recruitment and retention of skilled and experienced aerial 
        firefighters.

SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY OF AERIAL FIREFIGHTERS FOR PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER 
              DEATH BENEFITS.

    (a) In General.--Section 1204(7) of the Omnibus Crime Control and 
Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796b(7)) is amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (B) by striking ``or'' at the end;
            (2) in subparagraph (C) by striking the period at the end 
        and inserting ``; or''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
                    ``(D) an individual serving a public agency, or a 
                contractor or subcontractor at any tier of a public 
                agency, in an official capacity, with or without 
                compensation, as a pilot or a crew member of an 
                aircraft carrying out a firefighting mission on behalf 
                of such public agency, if the injury involved occurs 
                during the period beginning with the moment in which 
                the aircraft first moves under its own power for the 
                purpose of flight and ending with the moment in which 
                the aircraft comes to rest after landing.''.
    (b) Applicability.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall 
apply with respect to injuries occurring on or after September 29, 
1976.
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