[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 91 (Thursday, May 25, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3216-S3217]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Cardin, and Mr. Schumer):
  S. 1239. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify 
the rules applicable to length of service award plans; to the Committee 
on Finance.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise to introduce two bills that will 
benefit the brave women and men who volunteer at our local firehouses: 
the Volunteer Responder Incentive Protection Act and the Volunteer 
Firefighters' Length of Service Award Program Cap Adjustment Priority 
Act. I am pleased to be joined by my friend and colleague from 
Maryland, Senator Cardin, in reintroducing this bipartisan legislation.
  Across our nation, volunteer firefighters play a critical role in 
helping to ensure the safety of our communities and the well-being of 
our neighbors. The State of Maine, for example, has approximately 
11,000 firefighters in more than 400 departments. Because Maine is a 
largely rural state, more than 90 percent of those firefighters are 
volunteers.
  Without these public-spirited citizens, many communities would be 
unable to provide emergency services protection at all, while others 
would be forced to raise local taxes to pay salaries and benefits for 
full- or part-time

[[Page S3217]]

staff. Often, communities seek to recruit and retain volunteers by 
offering modest benefits. The bills we are introducing today would 
support these efforts by helping to ensure that nominal benefits to 
volunteers are not treated as regular employee compensation.
  The Volunteer Responder Incentive Protection Act would allow 
communities to provide volunteer firefighters and EMS workers with up 
to $600 per year of property tax reductions or other incentives, 
without those benefits being subject to federal income tax and 
withholding. This would ease the administrative burden that local 
departments sometimes face when they reward their volunteers. We also 
want to help first responders save for retirement. For years, local and 
state governments have provided their volunteer firefighters and EMS 
personnel with different forms of benefits, including Length of Service 
Award Programs, commonly known as LOSAPs. These are pension-like 
benefits for volunteer emergency responders.
  Our second bill, the LOSAP Cap Act, would help communities recruit 
and retain volunteer firefighters by increasing the annual cap on 
contributions to their retirement accounts to $6,000, and allowing for 
adjustments for inflation.
  As we begin the complicated process of reforming our nation's tax 
code, I believe we should take care to protect those who serve this 
country with such bravery. That is why Senator Cardin and I have 
introduced these bills today, and I urge my colleagues to join us in 
supporting them.
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