[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 162 (Monday, August 22, 2016)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 57348-57372]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-18811]



[[Page 57347]]

Vol. 81

Monday,

No. 162

August 22, 2016

Part III





Department of Justice





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28 CFR Part 32





Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program; Proposed Rule

  Federal Register / Vol. 81 , No. 162 / Monday, August 22, 2016 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 57348]]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

28 CFR Part 32

[Docket No.: OJP (BJA) 1722]
RIN 1121-AA86


Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program

AGENCY: Office of Justice Programs, Justice.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.

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SUMMARY: This rulemaking proposes to make the following changes to 
current regulations implementing the Public Safety Officers' Benefits 
(PSOB) Act: Revising provisions pertaining to the filing of an 
application for benefits, revising provisions that define when an 
individual is a public safety officer, when an officer has sustained a 
line-of-duty injury, when payment of benefits is prohibited, and when 
individuals are ineligible for payment; revising provisions pertaining 
to the admissibility, sufficiency, and evaluation of evidence submitted 
in PSOB claims; revising provisions concerning the fees that may be 
charged for representation in PSOB claims, establishing provisions that 
prescribe the scope of legal review of PSOB claims and the completeness 
of applications for benefits, and revising provisions pertaining to the 
definitions of permanent and total disability, payment of benefits, 
educational assistance, and other matters necessary to implement the 
aforementioned changes.

DATES: Written comments must be postmarked and electronic comments must 
be submitted on or before October 21, 2016. Comments received by mail 
will be considered timely if they are postmarked on or before that 
date. The electronic Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) will 
accept comments until Midnight Eastern Time at the end of that day.

ADDRESSES: Please address all comments regarding this rule by U.S. 
mail, to: Hope Janke, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice 
Programs, 810 7th Street NW., Washington, DC 20531; or by telefacsimile 
to (202) 354-4135. To ensure proper handling, please reference OJP 
Docket No. [insert number] on your correspondence. Comments may also be 
sent electronically through http://regulations.gov using the electronic 
comment form provided on that site. An electronic copy of this document 
is also available at the http://regulations.gov Web site. OJP will 
accept attachments to electronic comments in Microsoft Word, 
WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF formats only.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Hope Janke, BJA, OJP, at (202) 514-
6278, or toll-free at 1 (888) 744-6513.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Table of Contents

I. Posting of Public Comments
II. Executive Summary
III. Background
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis
V. Regulatory Requirements

I. Posting of Public Comments

    Please note that all comments received are considered part of the 
public record and made available for public inspection online at http://www.regulations.gov. Information made available for public inspection 
includes personal identifying information (such as your name, address, 
etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter.
    The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) does not require you to submit 
personal identifying information (such as your name, address, medical 
information etc.) as part of your comment. However, if you wish to 
submit such information, but do not wish it to be posted online, you 
must include the phrase ``PERSONAL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION'' in the 
first paragraph of your comment. You must also locate all the personal 
identifying information that you do not want posted online in the first 
paragraph of your comment and identify what information you want the 
agency to redact. Personal identifying information identified and 
located as set forth above will be placed in the agency's public docket 
file, but not posted online.
    If you wish to submit confidential business information as part of 
your comment but do not wish it to be posted online, you must include 
the phrase ``CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION'' in the first paragraph 
of your comment. You must also prominently identify confidential 
business information to be redacted within the comment. If a comment 
has so much confidential business information that it cannot be 
effectively redacted, the agency may choose not to post that comment 
(or to only partially post that comment) on http://www.regulations.gov. 
Confidential business information identified and located as set forth 
above will not be placed in the public docket file, nor will it be 
posted online.
    If you wish to inspect the agency's public docket file in person by 
appointment, please see the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT paragraph.

II. Executive Summary

A. Purpose of the Regulatory Action

1. Need for Regulatory Action
    The Public Safety Officers' Benefits Act of 1976 (PSOB Act) was 
enacted to address the emotional and economic burden placed on the 
families of deceased public safety officers by providing the assurance 
of a federal benefit to such survivors.\1\ As recently as 2012, the 
House Committee on the Judiciary reaffirmed this purpose stating 
``[t]he [Public Safety Officers' Benefits Act] . . . is an important 
resource for the public safety officers and their families who would 
potentially face financial disaster because of the death or 
incapacitation of the public safety officer.'' \2\
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    \1\ See S. Rep. No. 94-816, at 3-4, as reprinted in 1976 
U.S.C.C.A.N. 2504, 2505.
    \2\ H.R. Rpt. 112-548 at 6 (Jun. 25, 2012).
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    As of February 1, 2016, 931 claims for benefits were pending before 
the agency: 761 initial claims for benefits pending at the PSOB Office, 
123 appeals of PSOB Office determinations pending with Hearing 
Officers, and 47 appeals of Hearing Officer determinations pending with 
the BJA Director. A recent audit by the Department of Justice's Office 
of the Inspector General (OIG) found that although the PSOB Program 
processed 56% of determined claims within one year of filing, other 
claims took significantly longer to resolve.\3\ A Business Process 
Improvement (BPI) review of the PSOB Program completed by an 
independent contractor in October 2015 noted, among other things, that 
``the combination of the lengthy processing times and the growing 
backlog of open claims indicates significant changes are needed for the 
program to operate efficiently and process existing and new claims in a 
timely manner.''
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    \3\ U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 
Audit of the Office of Justice Programs' Processing of Public Safety 
Officers' Benefit Programs Claims, Audit Division 15-21 at 8 (July 
7, 2015).
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    To fulfill Congress' intent that the PSOB Program remain ``an 
important resource'' for public safety officers and their families, the 
proposed rulemaking would amend regulations implementing the Act to 
implement recommendations from the OIG audit and BPI review, simplify 
the process for claimants to establish eligibility, simplify the 
program, and implement statutory changes to the PSOB Act.
2. Statement of Authority for Regulatory Action
    Under 42 U.S.C. 3796(a)-(b) (authorizing the agency to promulgate

[[Page 57349]]

regulations for the determination of PSOB Program death and disability 
claims), 3796c(a) (authorizing the agency to promulgate regulations for 
(1) the determination of PSOB Program death and disability claims, (2) 
``the recognition of agents or other persons representing claimants'' 
in PSOB death and disability claims, and (3) the establishment of ``the 
maximum fees which may be charged for services performed in connection 
with any claim''), 3796d-3(a) (authorizing the agency to promulgate 
regulations for implementing PSOB Educational Assistance programs), and 
3782(a) (authorizing the agency to establish regulations ``necessary to 
the exercise of [its] functions''), the agency is authorized to 
promulgate regulations necessary to implement the PSOB Act. The agency 
has previously exercised its regulatory authority to define in 
regulations many of the terms essential to this rulemaking including 
``public agency,'' ``injury,'' ``line of duty,'' ``line of duty 
injury,'' ``official capacity,'' ``firefighter,'' ``involvement [in 
crime and juvenile delinquency control or reduction],'' ``gross 
negligence,'' and ``voluntary intoxication.''

B. Summary of Major Provisions

    The proposed rule would make the following changes in response to 
the Dale Long Public Safety Officers' Benefits Improvement Act of 2012 
(Dale Long Act), as provided in sec. 1086 of Public Law 112-239:
     Revise the definition of ``child of a public safety 
officer;''
     Define ``line of duty activity or action'' for members of 
rescue squads and ambulance crews;
     Revise the definition of ``officially recognized or 
designated public employee member of a squad or crew;''
     Remove the definition of ``public employee member of a 
squad or crew;'' and
     Remove for purposes of educational assistance definitions 
of ``dependent,'' ``eligible dependent,'' and ``tax year.''
    The proposed rule would make the following changes in response to 
identified ambiguities and gaps in existing regulations, as well as 
opportunities to simplify and improve the program's administration:
     Expand the definitions of ``firefighter,'' and 
``involvement [in crime and juvenile delinquency control or 
reduction]'' (a necessary component to qualify as a ``law enforcement 
officer'') to include firefighter and law enforcement officer trainees 
who are participants in an official training program required for 
employment or certification as a firefighter or a law enforcement 
officer;
     Expand the definitions of ``line of duty activity or 
action'' and ``official capacity'' to include a public safety officer's 
actions to save human life in certain limited circumstances but without 
regard to jurisdiction;
     Introduce a definition of ``volunteer fire department'' 
which provides that a department satisfying the definition qualifies as 
an ``instrumentality'' of a public agency thereby enabling otherwise 
qualified volunteer firefighters to more easily establish ``public 
safety officer'' status;
     Replace the current standard for determining admissibility 
of evidence (the Federal Rules of Evidence) with the requirement that 
evidence be ``credible, probative, and substantial;''
     Replace existing prerequisite certification requirements 
for death and disability claims with a single provision authorizing 
PSOB determining officials to require that a claimant provide any 
evidence necessary to determine eligibility;
     Establish a limited exception to the requirement that a 
claimant must establish all issues by the standard of proof of ``more 
likely than not;'' when evidence is equivalent on a particular issue, 
the determining official will resolve such issue in the claimant's 
favor;
     Change from ``clear and convincing'' to ``more likely than 
not'' the standard of proof required to establish (1) an officer was 
injured because of his or her status as a public safety officer, (2) 
total and permanent disability, and (3) parent-child relationship;
     Expand the types of permissible fee arrangements for 
representative services, establish a definition for ``attorney'' and 
limit paid representation in PSOB claims to such individuals;
     Establish, consistent with authority in 42 U.S.C. 3796c(a) 
providing that the Bureau of Justice Assistance may prescribe in 
regulations ``the maximum fees which may be charged for services 
performed in connection with any claim,'' a cap on fees of 12 percent 
of the total payment available to a claimant and establish fee amounts 
that are presumptively reasonable in claims determined at the PSOB 
Office level (8 percent) and at the Hearing Officer or BJA Director 
level (10 percent);
     Revise the definition of ``totally disabled'' and related 
provisions to address circumstances when a claimant performs work that 
is compensated but not substantial; and
     Require individuals seeking benefits to file minimum 
required documents (a complete application) before the agency will 
treat the application as a claim for benefits.

C. Projected Costs and Benefits

    The proposed rule is not economically significant as defined in 
Executive Orders 12866 and 13563. The estimated annual increase in PSOB 
Program death and disability benefit costs is $3,398,810, which equates 
to 10 additional determinations approving death or disability benefits 
as compared to the number of annual approvals under existing rules. 
There is no significant projected increase in administrative or 
personnel costs. OJP estimates that the rulemaking will result in (1) 
reduced burden for claimants in establishing eligibility for benefits, 
(2) timelier processing of all claims for death and disability 
benefits, and (3) improved delivery of benefits to eligible claimants.

III. Background

    The Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) Program, 42 U.S.C. 3796 
et seq. (established pursuant to the Public Safety Officers' Benefits 
Act of 1976), is administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) 
of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice. 
Generally speaking, the PSOB Program provides a one-time financial 
benefit, currently adjusted for inflation at $339,881, to the 
statutorily-eligible survivors of public safety officers who die as the 
direct and proximate result of personal injuries sustained in the line 
of duty, as well as educational assistance for their spouses and 
eligible children. Alternatively, the PSOB Program also provides the 
same inflation-adjusted one-time financial benefit directly to public 
safety officers determined to be permanently and totally disabled as 
the direct and proximate result of personal injury sustained in the 
line of duty, as well as educational assistance for their spouses and 
eligible children.
    Under 42 U.S.C. 3796(a), an individual seeking PSOB Program death 
benefits must establish the following: (1) That the deceased was a 
public safety officer as defined in 42 U.S.C. 3796b, (2) that the 
officer died as the direct and proximate result of an injury, (3) that 
the officer's injury was sustained in the line of duty, (4) that the 
claimant is an eligible beneficiary as identified in 42 U.S.C. 
3796(a)(1)-(6), and (5) that no limitations in 42 U.S.C. 3796a, e.g., 
the decedent's voluntary intoxication or gross negligence, bar 
recovery. Under 42 U.S.C. 3796(b), an individual seeking PSOB Program 
disability benefits must establish many of the same facts: (1) That the 
claimant was a public safety

[[Page 57350]]

officer as defined in 42 U.S.C. 3796b, (2) that the officer is 
permanently and totally disabled, (3) that such disability was the 
direct and proximate result of an injury, (4) that the officer's injury 
was sustained in the line of duty, and (5) that no limitations in 42 
U.S.C. 3796a bar recovery. Under 42 U.S.C. 3796d-1, the spouse or child 
of a public safety officer determined to have been killed or 
permanently and totally disabled as the direct and proximate result of 
an injury sustained in the line of duty is eligible under 42 U.S.C. 
3796d-1 to receive financial assistance for purposes of pursuing a 
program of higher education provided that the claimant is attending or 
has successfully completed a qualified education program.
    The agency last published comprehensive regulations for the PSOB 
Program in December 2008. See 73 FR 76520 (Dec. 17, 2008). Since that 
time, the Dale Long Act was enacted, which made several significant 
amendments to the PSOB Act. Recently, in a separate notice of proposed 
rulemaking (NPRM) published in the Federal Register on on July 15, 
2016, 81 FR 46019, the agency proposed regulations that would, among 
other things, implement the Dale Long Act's provisions offsetting 
certain payments, and ensure that the regulations reflect updated 
statutory language regarding the presumption in 42 U.S.C. 3796(k) 
covering certain heart attacks, strokes, and vascular ruptures. The 
present NPRM addresses other provisions in the Dale Long Act that the 
agency believes would benefit from rulemaking.
    In addition to the Dale Long Act necessitating regulatory 
revisions, the agency has identified the need to revise its regulations 
to reflect current interpretations and practice. Since the last 
comprehensive regulatory revision in 2008, OJP has determined over 
2,582 PSOB claims.\4\ In so doing, it has identified ambiguities and 
gaps in existing regulations, as well as opportunities to simplify and 
improve the program's administration, while maintaining program 
integrity.
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    \4\ Claims determined at the PSOB Office, Hearing Officer, and 
BJA Director levels between December 17, 2008 and February 1, 2016.
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IV. Section-by-Section Analysis

Section 32.2 Computation of Time; Filing

    Section 32.2 provides general definitions and guidance as to when 
something is ``filed'' with the PSOB Office or other PSOB determining 
officials. Other regulations, e.g., 28 CFR 32.12(a), establish time 
frames for when a particular type of claim must be filed and provide 
that the BJA Director may waive the time requirements for good cause 
shown. Neither the PSOB Act nor its implementing regulations, however, 
defines what constitutes ``good cause.'' To establish uniform and 
transparent criteria for consistently evaluating what constitutes good 
cause, the proposed rule would add a new paragraph (e) describing the 
circumstances that may constitute good cause and warrant a waiver 
permitting an individual to file out of time. Under proposed Sec.  
32.2(e), circumstances beyond the individual's control such as lengthy 
illness or physical or mental incapacity, detrimental reliance on 
erroneous information provided by the public safety officer's agency, 
public agency determination of the officer's (or survivor's) 
eligibility or entitlement to death or disability benefits after the 
time for filing has passed, or other unavoidable circumstances showing 
that an individual could not have reasonably known about the time 
limits for filing may establish good cause. Examples of evidence 
establishing ``good cause' would include a statement or affidavit from 
the individual seeking the extension or other person with knowledge of 
the particular basis for the extension. The proposed rule would limit 
the scope of the aforementioned exceptions by providing that, 
consistent with current practice, a lack of knowledge about the PSOB 
Program is not a valid basis for establishing good cause.
    In addition, in preparation for going to a ``paperless'' claims 
processing system, proposed Sec.  32.2(h) would permit the BJA 
Director, after publishing a Notice in the Federal Register consistent 
with 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(1)(C), and providing reasonable notice through the 
PSOB Program Web site, to require that all claims and supporting 
documents be filed in electronic form.

Section 32.3 Definitions

    Section 32.3 provides definitions applicable to all three PSOB 
Program components, death, disability, and education. OJP proposes to 
amend the existing definitions in Sec.  32.3 as follows:
     Agent: Under 42 U.S.C. 3796c, the agency is authorized to 
promulgate ``regulations governing the recognition of agents or other 
persons representing claimants.'' The agency has exercised its 
regulatory authority to establish in current Sec.  32.7 provisions 
governing the circumstances under which representatives may charge fees 
for representative services in a claim for benefits under the PSOB Act. 
However, the current rules do not define the categories of individuals 
authorized to provide representative services in PSOB claims and the 
agency believes that such definitions are necessary for the 
implementation of proposed rules providing the categories of 
individuals that may charge fees for representative services. The 
proposed rule would define ``agent'' as an individual who represents 
persons seeking PSOB Program benefits and is not an attorney.
     Attorney: Pursuant to the authority granted by 42 U.S.C. 
3796c(a) providing that the agency may promulgate regulations for 
purposes of recognizing the agents or other persons representing 
claimants under the PSOB Act, the proposed rule would define the term 
``attorney'' as a member in good standing of a State bar. The agency 
believes that membership in good standing in a State bar is a reliable 
indicator that such a person would be capable of providing competent 
and ethical representation in a claim before the agency. This rule is 
intended to work in conjunction with proposed Sec.  32.7, which would 
limit the ability to seek fees for representative services to attorneys 
as defined in this provision.
     Authorized commuting: the proposed rule would clarify that 
a public safety officer's return travel from responding to a fire, 
rescue, or police emergency is considered to be in the line of duty.
     Child of a public safety officer: From the time of the 
enactment of the PSOB Act in 1976,\5\ until January 1, 2013, an 
individual's status as a child was determined based on the individual's 
status at the time of the public safety officer's death. Effective 
January 2, 2013, for all claims pending before BJA on that date, or 
filed or accruing thereafter, an individual's status as a child is 
determined at the time of the public safety officer's fatal (or 
catastrophic, for disability claims), injury.'' The revised rule 
implements the statutory change by removing provisions inconsistent 
with the amendment such as those that refer to a ``child [] adopted by 
[the officer] after the injury date'' and retaining the requirement 
that an officer's parental rights must be intact as of the officer's 
injury date to establish that an individual was ``a child of a public 
safety officer.''
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    \5\ Public Law 94-430, 90 Stat. 1346, 1347 (1976).
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     Department or agency: The PSOB Act, for most purposes, 
defines a public safety officer as an individual serving a public 
agency in an official capacity as a law enforcement officer, 
firefighter, or chaplain. 42 U.S.C. 3796b(9)(A). As defined in 42 
U.S.C. 3796b(8), the term

[[Page 57351]]

public agency generally refers to a unit of government at the federal, 
state, or local level, and includes subordinate entities of such 
governments such as a ``department'' or ``agency'' as well as an 
``instrumentality'' of any of the aforementioned entities. Nothing in 
the statutory definition of ``public agency'' or the regulatory 
definitions of ``instrumentality'' or ``department or agency'' in 28 
CFR 32.3 expressly addresses or covers those entities created by 
interstate compact, many of which perform public safety activity 
pursuant to the terms of the compact (e.g., the Washington Metropolitan 
Area Transit Authority or the Port Authority of New York and New 
Jersey). Because OJP has consistently interpreted the terms ``public 
agency'' and ``department or agency'' to include such entities, it 
proposes to add a new provision in 28 CFR 32.3 (defining Department or 
agency) to make this interpretation clear. Under the proposed rule, the 
definition of ``department or agency'' would include an entity created 
by interstate compact between two or more States or between a State(s) 
and the District of Columbia with the consent of the United States 
Congress.
     Determination: Consistent with the proposed removal of 
current Sec.  32.27, which provides claimants with the option to seek 
reconsideration of an adverse disability determination, the proposed 
rule would eliminate from the definition of ``determination'' reference 
to such a motion.
     Divorce: Under the current regulation, a spouse or 
purported spouse of an individual may be found to be ``divorced'' for 
purposes of the PSOB Program if, after the marriage or purported 
marriage, the spouse or purported spouse holds himself out as being 
divorced from, or otherwise not married to the individual, holds 
himself out as being married to another individual, or is a party to a 
marriage ceremony with another individual. The agency's experience with 
such non-judicial divorce, particularly with long-estranged parties, is 
that evidence of such acts is inherently unreliable. To make more 
reliable agency findings of divorce and simplify the administration of 
the program, the proposed rule would eliminate as a basis for finding 
``divorce'' all dissolutions of marriage other than ordered by a court.
     Employee: The proposed rule would clarify, pursuant to the 
statutory limitation in 42 U.S.C. 3796a(5), that the term does not 
include any active-duty member of the armed forces.
     Firefighter: Absent from the language of the PSOB Act is 
any mention of whether public safety officer candidates or trainees 
qualify as public safety officers. In a recent report, the House 
Judiciary Committee noted that ``certain provisions of the [PSOB Act] 
have the effect of excluding from the program some classes or 
subclasses of safety officers and of trainees who might better be 
included under certain circumstances,'' including police academy and 
firefighter trainees.\6\
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    \6\ H.R. Rpt. 112-548 at 8-9 (June 25, 2012).
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    Under current regulations, a firefighter trainee, even if 
participating in a fire suppression exercise of the trainee's public 
agency that is mandatory for his or her certification or employment as 
a firefighter by his or her public agency, generally does not qualify 
as a ``public safety officer'' for purposes of the PSOB Act. This is 
because the regulatory definition of ``firefighter'' requires that a 
firefighter possess, among other things, the legal authority and 
responsibility to engage in the suppression of fire outside of the 
training environment to be considered a ``public safety officer.'' As a 
result, such trainees are ineligible except where a trainee has the 
legal authority and responsibility to act without limitation at the 
time of the injury.\7\
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    \7\ As a result of the current definition of ``firefighter,'' a 
trainee firefighter who is killed or permanently disabled while 
participating in an official training program of his or her public 
agency, that is mandatory for the trainee's certification or 
employment as a firefighter with that particular public agency, is 
ineligible for benefits under the PSOB Act by virtue of not 
qualifying as a ``public safety officer.''
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    As demonstrated by the claims for death benefits submitted on 
behalf of trainees, the hazards faced while participating in training 
mandatory to serve a public agency as a firefighter (e.g., the 
suppression of fire), are similar to that encountered in serving the 
public. Accordingly, OJP believes that a limited expansion of the 
current rule to include trainees is warranted.
    The proposed rule expands the definition of ``firefighter'' to 
cover an individual who participates in an official training program of 
the officer's public agency involving the suppression of fire or 
hazardous-material response that is mandatory for the individual's 
employment or certification as a firefighter with a particular public 
agency. The proposed rule would permit payment on behalf of any 
individual who died or to any who was permanently and totally disabled 
as the direct and proximate result of an injury sustained while 
participating in such training.
     Gross negligence: Under 42 U.S.C. 3796a(3), the agency is 
prohibited from paying benefits when, at the time of the officer's 
fatal or catastrophic injury, the officer is performing his or her 
duties in a grossly negligent manner. Under the current definition in 
28 CFR 32.3, ``gross negligence'' is established when the officer's 
performance of duty indicates an extraordinary departure from the 
appropriate degree of care, e.g., a heedless, wanton, or reckless 
action, and occurs in the face of significant hazards, where serious 
injury or damage is likely to follow, or where great danger is readily 
apparent. The agency's experience is that the current rule is difficult 
to apply in part due to the multiple terms defining the degree of 
deviation from the standard of care required to establish such 
negligence as well as the breadth of circumstances under which such a 
deviation would establish such negligence.
    The proposed rule streamlines the definition by using a single 
term, ``reckless,'' to describe the deviation from the appropriate 
standard of care, and by using a single set of conditions, ``under 
circumstances where it is highly likely that serious harm will 
follow,'' to describe the conditions under which such misconduct would 
implicate the statutory bar to payment in 42 U.S.C. 3796a(3). The 
proposed rule also provides that the standard for measuring a public 
safety officer's conduct is that of a similarly situated public safety 
officer. The proposed rule is intended to simplify the agency's 
application of this statutory bar to payment and limit its application 
to those circumstances in which it is apparent that the officer's gross 
negligence was a substantial contributing factor in the officer's 
injury.
     Injury: To establish an ``injury'' under current 28 CFR 
32.3, a public safety officer must have sustained a traumatic physical 
wound or traumatized physical condition of the body that is the direct 
and proximate result of an external force or other factor listed in the 
definition, including, among other things, chemicals, bacteria, or 
climatic conditions.
    The current rule expressly excludes from coverage as an injury 
``occupational disease'' or ``any condition of the body caused or 
occasioned by stress or strain,'' both of which are defined further in 
28 CFR 32.3. Under current regulations, conditions caused by stress or 
strain and thus excluded from coverage as an injury generally include 
those caused by physical exertion; chronic, cumulative, and progressive 
conditions; cardiovascular disease; and heart attacks, strokes, and 
vascular ruptures.
    The agency's experience is that the current regulatory requirement 
that an

[[Page 57352]]

injury must in all cases be the result of an external force or factor, 
taken together with the current ``stress or strain'' exclusion, 
excludes from coverage under the PSOB Act all physical conditions 
caused by exertion. As a result of the current definitions, an 
officer's death or disability from an acute and immediate physical 
condition such as exertional heatstroke or rhabdomyolysis \8\ would not 
be eligible for benefits. While retaining the longstanding 
interpretation that an injury under the PSOB Act is a traumatic 
physical wound or traumatized physical condition of the body directly 
and proximately caused by external forces or factors, the proposed rule 
would provide, consistent with BJA's current interpretation, that 
injury also includes acute and immediate musculoskeletal strain or 
muscle damage, and heatstroke, each of which may be established as an 
acute condition, and without an external force or factor.
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    \8\ ``Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of muscle tissue that 
leads to the release of muscle fiber contents into the blood. These 
substances are harmful to the kidney and often cause kidney 
damage.'' It may be caused by, among other things, ``severe 
exertion, such as marathon running or calisthenics.'' National 
Institutes of Health (MedlinePlus), Rhabdomyolysis, https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000473.htm (accessed Feb. 
11, 2016).
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    In addition, the agency's experience in determining claims suggests 
that the definition of injury should be revised to make clear current 
agency interpretations that may not be obvious or intuitive to 
claimants and other stakeholders. The current definition of injury does 
not reflect the agency's interpretation that an increase in the 
severity of an officer's pre-existing physical wound or condition--
regardless of the cause of the pre-existing wound or condition--is an 
injury under the PSOB Act so long as the increase in severity is itself 
the direct and proximate result of a line of duty injury. The proposed 
rule would provide that such aggravation of pre-existing conditions 
would constitute an injury. In stating that certain aggravation of a 
pre-existing injury may constitute an injury for purposes of the PSOB 
Program, the proposed rule clarifies that a pre-existing injury is not 
automatically excluded from consideration as the substantial factor in 
an officer's death or permanent and total disability.
    Based on the claims it has received, the agency believes that the 
regulatory definition of ``injury'' together with the separate 
definition of stress or strain, have proven very challenging for 
claimants to understand and apply, particularly to fatal heart attacks, 
strokes, and vascular ruptures. The agency believes that this is in 
part due to the absence from the current definitions the agency's 
longstanding interpretation that heart attacks and strokes, absent an 
external force or factor shown to have directly and proximately caused 
such condition, are not injuries. The agency's interpretation dates 
back to the first PSOB regulations published in 1977, 42 FR 23252, 
23260 (May 6, 1977), and has been upheld in a series of court 
decisions.\9\
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    \9\ See e.g., Juneau v. Dept. of Justice, 583 F.3d 777, 782-83 
(Fed. Cir. 2009) (holding that an officer's heart attack following a 
foot chase of shoplifting suspects did not warrant payment of PSOB 
death benefits as the officer's traumatic condition, i.e., a heart 
attack, was not caused by an injury as defined in PSOB regulations); 
see also Smykowski v. United States, 647 F.2d 1103, 1106 (Ct. Cl. 
1981) (concluding that an officer's physical struggle with a suspect 
immediately preceding a fatal heart attack, although different from 
stress or strain and cognizable itself as a traumatic event, was not 
an injury under the PSOB Act.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Heart attacks, strokes, and vascular ruptures are eligible for 
death benefits under the presumption created by the Hometown Heroes 
Survivors' Benefits Act of 2003 (Pub. L. 108-182) (Hometown Heroes Act) 
and amended by the Dale Long Public Safety Officers' Benefits 
Improvement Act of 2012 (Pub. L. 112-239). Together, these amendments 
have established a rebuttable presumption that a heart attack, stroke, 
or vascular rupture satisfying the requirements of 42 U.S.C. 3796(k) 
constitutes a personal injury sustained in the line of duty. Generally 
speaking, the presumption is established in cases where a public safety 
officer sustains heart attack, stroke, or vascular rupture while 
engaging in a situation involving ``nonroutine stressful or strenuous 
physical [line of duty] . . . activity'' or participating in a training 
exercise ``involving nonroutine stressful or strenuous physical 
activity'' (or within 24 hours of such engagement or participation) and 
the heart attack, stroke, or vascular rupture is the direct and 
proximate cause of the officer's death. Though not directly related to 
the definition of injury under Sec.  32.3, in an NPRM published in the 
Federal Register on July 15, 2016, 81 FR 46019, the agency proposed 
regulations that would define the circumstances under which the 
presumption is rebutted in amended 42 U.S.C. 3796(k).
    To make the agency's interpretation clear, the proposed rule would 
eliminate the separate definition of stress or strain and would 
incorporate those conditions excluded by that definition directly into 
the definition of injury. In so doing, the proposed rule would identify 
specific types of conditions excluded from the definition of injury 
including: ``any chronic, cumulative, or progressive condition of the 
body,'' and ``cardiovascular disease.'' To clarify for claimants and 
the general public that, under 42 U.S.C. 3796(k), certain heart 
attacks, strokes, and vascular ruptures may be presumed to be a 
personal injury, the proposed rule would so state.
    Similarly, the current definition of injury does not, by itself, 
clearly reflect the agency's longstanding interpretation that mental 
health conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or 
anxiety do not constitute an injury, and therefore, the basis of a 
disability, under the PSOB Act. By way of background, the Law 
Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) defined the term 
``traumatic injury'' in 1977 as excluding ``stress and strain.'' 
Referring to the legislative history of the PSOB Act, and, in 
particular, the definition of ``personal injury'' in the House 
Judiciary Committee Reports, the LEAA stated that ``[d]eaths caused by 
traumatic injuries do not therefore include deaths directly 
attributable to exertion or stress encountered in the performance of 
duty.'' \10\ Further supporting LEAA's original interpretation, a 2001 
case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit 
found permissible BJA's regulatory definition ``exclud[ing] from the 
definition of `traumatic injury' stress and strain.'' \11\ In 
explaining its conclusion, the court stated that ``the legislative 
history [of the PSOB Act] points away from an intent on the part of 
Congress to have the statutory term `personal injury' include mental 
strain.'' \12\ More recently, in a House Report describing, among other 
things, amendments to the statute authorizing payment of disability 
benefits, 42 U.S.C. 3796(b), the Committee on the Judiciary stated that 
``a disability benefit is payable only when the Department determines 
that a public safety officer has sustained a line of duty injury whose 
direct physical consequences permanently prevent the performance of any 
gainful work.\13\
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    \10\ 42 FR 23252, 23260, May 6, 1977.
    \11\ Yanco v. United States 258 F.3d 1356, 1363 (Fed. Cir. 
2001).
    \12\ Id. at 1364.
    \13\ H.R. Rep. No. 112-548 at 13 (2012) (emphasis added).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    To better communicate the agency's longstanding interpretation 
regarding the ineligibility of mental health conditions for PSOB 
Program benefits, the revised definition of injury would expressly 
provide that mental health

[[Page 57353]]

conditions are excluded from consideration as an ``injury.''
     Injury date: Under current regulations defining ``injury 
date,'' such date generally means the time of the line of duty injury 
that directly and proximately resulted in the death or permanent and 
total disability of the public safety officer. Current regulations do 
not define when an injury occurs for purposes of 42 U.S.C. 3796(k) for 
purposes other than ``determining beneficiaries under the Act.'' As the 
``injury date'' in a claim based on 42 U.S.C. 3796(k) is relevant for 
other purposes (e.g., determining voluntary intoxication), the proposed 
rule would define injury date in such a claim. The proposed rule would 
provide that, for all purposes relating to 42 U.S.C. 3796(k), injury 
date means the time of the officer's qualifying engagement or 
participation referred to in the Act at 42 U.S.C. 3796(k)(1)).
     Involvement: Under current regulations, a law enforcement 
officer trainee, even while participating in an official training 
program that is mandatory for his or her certification or employment as 
a law enforcement officer (e.g., firearms training), is generally not a 
``public safety officer'' for purposes of the PSOB Act. This is because 
the regulatory definition of ``involvement'' requires that a law 
enforcement officer possess, among other things, the unrestricted 
``legal authority and -responsibility'' to arrest or apprehend . . . 
persons for violations of criminal law to qualify as a ``public safety 
officer.'' As a result, such trainees are ineligible except in the 
unusual circumstances in which a trainee has the legal authority and 
responsibility to act as a law enforcement officer without limitation 
at the time of the injury.\14\
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    \14\ As a result of the current definition of ``involvement,'' a 
necessary element of the definition of ``law enforcement officer,'' 
a trainee police officer who is killed or permanently disabled while 
participating in an official training program of his or her public 
agency, that is mandatory for the trainee's certification or 
employment as a police officer with that particular public agency, 
is ineligible for benefits under the PSOB Act by virtue of not 
qualifying as a ``public safety officer.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As demonstrated by the claims for death benefits submitted on 
behalf of trainees, the hazards faced while participating in training 
mandatory to be serve a public agency as a law enforcement officer 
(e.g., firearms training, unarmed self-defense, or physical training) 
are similar to what may be encountered in serving the public. 
Accordingly, a limited expansion of the current rule to include such 
circumstances is warranted.
    The proposed rule expands the definition of ``involvement'' to 
cover as a ``law enforcement officer'' any individual who participates 
in an official training program of the individual's public agency that 
is mandatory for that individual's employment or certification in 
certain law enforcement positions such as a police officer, corrections 
officer, probation officer, or equivalent. The proposed rule would 
permit payment on behalf of any individual who died or to any who was 
permanently and totally disabled as the direct and proximate result of 
an injury sustained while participating in such mandatory training.
     Line of duty activity or action: The proposed rule would 
provide that certain activities or actions of a law enforcement officer 
or firefighter, performed under emergency circumstances and necessary 
to save or protect human life, in any jurisdiction, would be deemed to 
be line of duty activity or action for purposes of the PSOB Act.
    Under 42 U.S.C. 3796(a) and (b), the agency pays death or 
disability benefits when it determines that a public safety officer has 
died or become permanently and totally disabled as ``the direct and 
proximate result of a personal injury sustained in the line of duty.'' 
Under current regulations, a public safety officer's action or activity 
and resulting injury is ``in the line of duty'' only if it is an action 
or activity that the officer is legally authorized or obligated to 
perform as a public safety officer and the officer's public agency 
recognizes it as such.\15\ Where an officer acts outside his or 
jurisdiction, even if acting in an emergency to save human life, such 
actions are generally outside the legal authority of the officer's 
public agency and, as a result, excluded from PSOB Act coverage as not 
``in the line of duty.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \15\ See 28 CFR 32.3 (defining Line of duty activity or action).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As guardians of the public, public safety officers are trained to 
and called upon to engage in extraordinary acts of self-sacrifice and 
bravery to save the lives of others. However, these acts may not always 
occur within an officer's jurisdiction. The regulations which require 
that an officer's public agency affirm, or at least, not deny, that a 
public safety officer had the legal authority and responsibility to 
perform such actions, as currently written, do not take into account 
the extraordinary situations which require an urgent and immediate 
response and do not afford a public safety officer an opportunity to 
seek approval or authorization to act.
    Within the context of the PSOB Program, BJA recognizes that public 
safety officers, by virtue of their training, expertise, and 
experience, are often compelled to act where human life is endangered. 
Moreover, a public safety officer's training and experience make them 
uniquely qualified to intervene to save human life. Accordingly, BJA 
believes that the actions of public safety officers, i.e., firefighters 
and law enforcement officers, in these extraordinary and limited 
circumstances should be covered by the PSOB Program.
    As the PSOB Act does not define ``line of duty'' and expressly 
delegated to the agency in 42 U.S.C. 3796(c) the authority to 
promulgate implementing regulations, the agency may interpret the term 
``line of duty'' in regulations so long as the interpretation is not 
arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to law.\16\ The agency's proposed 
regulatory interpretation recognizes, consistent with the language of 
42 U.S.C. 3796(a) and (b), that ``[t]he word `duty' connotes a legal or 
moral obligation'' and that ``[i]n reference to public safety officers, 
`duty' refers to the obligation to protect the public in their capacity 
as firefighters or police officers.'' \17\ The proposed rule recognizes 
the connection between an injury sustained by an officer in the course 
of performing a lifesaving act, even an officer who may be off-duty and 
outside of his or her jurisdiction, and the officer's duty as a public 
safety officer to protect the public. Moreover, the proposed rule is 
consistent with existing provisions that deem an officer's injury to be 
in the line of duty even in circumstances when the officer may have 
been off duty and without regard to the officer's location--when ``such 
injury resulted from the injured party's status as a public safety 
officer.'' \18\ Other provisions of federal law similarly recognize 
public safety officers' special role by granting rights beyond those 
enjoyed by the public at

[[Page 57354]]

large \19\ and recognizing that local public safety officers often 
serve the public in areas other than the officer's immediate 
jurisdiction.\20\ Finally, in recognizing and covering the risks faced 
by public safety officers in carrying out their obligation to protect 
the public, the limited expansion in the proposed rule is also 
consistent with one of the purposes of the PSOB Act, to recruit and 
retain public safety officers.
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    \16\ See Hawkins v. United States, 469 F.3d 993, 1004 (Fed. Cir. 
2006) (providing that, as Congress did not define line of duty in 
the PSOB Act, ``the BJA's regulatory interpretation of `line of 
duty' . . . must be upheld unless it is ``arbitrary, capricious, or 
manifestly contrary to the statute'') (other citation omitted). Cf. 
Davis v. United States, 50 Fed.Cl. 192, 200 (2001) (``Congress has 
spoken on the issue of `line of duty' and its scope. A public safety 
officer is killed in the `line of duty' when his or her death 
results from the performance of any duty required by law or terms of 
employment or as a consequence of his or her identity as a safety 
officer.'').
    \17\ Davis v. United States, 50 Fed.Cl. 192, 207 (2001).
    \18\ See 28 CFR 32.3 (defining Line of duty injury).
    \19\ See, e.g., Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004, 
Public Law 108-277, 118 Stat. 865, codified at 18 U.S.C. 926B, 926C 
(granting ``qualified law enforcement officers'' the right to carry 
concealed weapons across state lines, notwithstanding provisions of 
state law prohibiting or limiting concealed weapons).
    \20\ See, e.g., 5 U.S.C. 8191 (authorizing federal workers' 
compensation benefits to local law enforcement officers injured 
while pursuing or apprehending persons sought for crimes against the 
United States or material witnesses for federal prosecutions).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The proposed rule would add to the definition of ``line of duty 
action or activity'' a narrow exception that would deem the 
extraordinary acts of a firefighter or law enforcement officer to save 
a human life as ``in the line of duty.'' To maintain the integrity and 
limited nature of the exception, such acts would be limited to those 
circumstances in which (1) the officer's actions constituted public 
safety activity, (2) the officer's actions were performed in the course 
of responding to an emergency situation requiring prompt actions to 
save human life, (3) the officer did not create the emergency situation 
to which he or she responded, (4) the human life the officer attempted 
to save or saved was other than that of the officer, and (5) the 
officer's acts were not contrary to the law of the jurisdiction in 
which performed.
    Providing a narrowly drawn exception to the definition of line of 
duty is consistent with the purpose of the PSOB Act to extend coverage 
to firefighters and law enforcement officers who sacrifice their own 
their lives to save the life of others, or who are catastrophically 
injured while doing do. The proposed rule will further prevent the 
anomaly of such a public safety officer being recognized or honored 
posthumously for extraordinary acts of heroism through BJA programs 
such as the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor \21\ while at the same 
time being denied, or having their family denied, PSOB benefits because 
of narrowly drawn eligibility criteria do not take into account these 
extraordinary situations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \21\ Public Law 107-12, as amended, established the Public 
Safety Officer Medal of Valor, which is awarded by the President, in 
the name of Congress, to public safety officers for ``extraordinary 
valor above and beyond the call of duty.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As provided in sec. 1086 of Public Law 112-239, the Dale Long Act 
amended the PSOB Act by adding a new provision defining as a public 
safety officer those members of a rescue squad or ambulance crew who, 
as authorized, are engaging in rescue activity or providing emergency 
medical services.\22\ Notably, the amendment removed the requirement 
that an individual member be a ``public employee'' and expanded 
membership to ``officially recognized or designated employee or 
volunteer member[s]'' of public agencies as well as those employee or 
volunteer members of certain ``nonprofit entit[ies] serving the 
public.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \22\ 42 U.S.C. 3796b(9)(D).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Under the proposed rule, the ``line of duty activity or action'' 
definition would reflect the Dale Long Act's expansion of PSOB Program 
coverage to employee or volunteer members of ambulance crews and rescue 
squads operated by certain nonprofit entities serving the public. The 
proposed rule would also implement the reduced scope of PSOB Program 
coverage in 42 U.S.C. 3796b(9)(D) for all employee and volunteer 
members of public agency and nonprofit entity ambulance squads and 
rescue crews based on statutory language limiting public safety officer 
status to those circumstances in which a member of an ambulance crew or 
rescue squad is actually engaging in rescue activity or providing 
emergency medical services.\23\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \23\ As the statutory language of the 2013 amendment limits the 
scope of coverage to circumstances in which the rescue squad or 
ambulance crew member is engaging in rescue activity or the 
provision of emergency medical services ``as authorized or licensed 
by law and by the applicable agency or entity,'' OJP is unable to 
establish in regulations an exception for actions taken to save 
human life outside the member's jurisdiction.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Line of duty injury: Under current regulations, an injury 
is sustained in the line of duty if it was suffered during performance 
of a ``line of duty activity or a line of duty action'' or ``authorized 
commuting.'' \24\ In such circumstances, it is the nature of the 
officer's actions that determines whether an injury is ``in the line of 
duty'' and therefore eligible for benefits. Existing PSOB regulations 
provide an exception to this general principle in that an injury is 
deemed to be in the line of duty if clear and convincing evidence 
demonstrates that the injury resulted from a public safety officer's 
status as a public safety officer. Under the current rule, it is the 
actions and motivation of the assailant that determine whether an 
injury is in the line of duty and eligible for benefits; consequently, 
every injury inflicted upon an off-duty public safety officer is not 
automatically considered to be in the line of duty. Rather, it must be 
shown that the motivation for injuring the officer was the officer's 
status as a public safety officer as opposed to a personal dispute or 
other event unrelated to the officer's status as a public safety 
officer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \24\ 28 CFR 32.3 (defining Line of duty injury).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The agency's experience is that this provision, although 
appropriately narrow, has proved particularly burdensome for claimants 
in those claims in which both the officer and the assailant are 
deceased and there is little or no evidence as to the motivation for 
injuring the officer. Adding to a claimant's challenges in establishing 
a line of duty injury in such claims, the current regulation also 
requires that such injury must be established by clear and convincing 
evidence rather than the standard of proof of ``more likely than not'' 
applicable to nearly all other determinations in the PSOB Program. The 
agency believes that two minor changes to the current regulation would 
enable claimants to establish eligibility in such claims and maintain 
the necessarily limited nature of the provision.
    The proposed rule would change from ``convincing'' to ``more likely 
than not'' the standard of proof for establishing that an officer was 
injured due to the officer's status as a public safety officer. In 
doing so, the proposed rule would address those situations in which the 
only evidence of the assailant's intent to injure the officer is 
circumstantial. As an assailant's intent to injure an officer on 
account of the officer's status is often intertwined with or manifested 
in an intent to retaliate against an officer for actions taken in the 
line of duty by the officer injured or other public safety officers, 
the proposed rule would also clarify that injury sustained by a public 
safety officer in retaliation for line of duty actions or activities is 
a valid basis for establishing line of duty injury as a result of an 
officer's status.
     Official capacity: In addition to the requirement in 42 
U.S.C. 3796b(9)(A) and implementing regulations that an individual must 
possess the qualifications applicable for the particular category of 
officer to establish public safety officer status, the evidence must 
also establish that the individual law enforcement officer and 
firefighter was serving a ``public agency in an official capacity'' at 
the time of injury. Public agency is defined in 42 U.S.C. 3796b(8) and 
generally refers to a unit of government at the federal, state, or

[[Page 57355]]

local level, subordinate entitles of such governments including a 
``department'' or ``agency,'' or an instrumentality of any of the 
aforementioned entities ``Official capacity'' is not defined in the 
PSOB Act; however, the agency has exercised its regulatory authority to 
define it in 28 CFR 32.3 as based on two criteria. First, an individual 
must be officially acknowledged by the agency to be functionally within 
or part of the agency; an individual's status as a contractor, by 
itself, does not establish that an individual is functionally within a 
public agency. Second, the public agency must accept legal 
responsibility for the acts and omissions of the individual.
    Under these existing definitions, an otherwise qualified 
firefighter or law enforcement officer who is recognized by his or her 
agency as functionally within or part of the agency, but acts in 
emergency circumstances to save human life outside his or her agency's 
jurisdiction or where he or she is otherwise not obligated to act, will 
generally not be found to be serving a public agency in an official 
capacity. This is because the firefighter's or law enforcement 
officer's acts and omissions in such circumstances will generally not 
be recognized by his or her own public agency as legally those of the 
agency.
    As discussed in the analysis of the proposed revision to the ``line 
of duty'' regulation, it is not uncommon for public safety officers to 
respond to emergencies regardless of whether the emergency is in their 
jurisdiction. The PSOB regulations which require that a public agency 
affirm, or at least, not deny, that a public safety officer's acts or 
omissions while acting outside the officer's jurisdiction were legally 
those of the public agency, as currently written, do not take into 
account these extraordinary situations which require an urgent and 
immediate response and do not afford a public agency the opportunity to 
determine whether it will affirm, or at least not deny legal 
responsibility for an officer's acts or omissions while so acting.
    Within the context of the PSOB Program, BJA recognizes that public 
safety officers, by virtue of their training, expertise, and 
experience, are often compelled to act where human life is endangered. 
Moreover, a public safety officer's training and experience make them 
uniquely qualified to intervene to save human life. Accordingly, BJA 
believes that the actions of public safety officers, i.e., firefighters 
and law enforcement officers, in these extraordinary and limited 
circumstances should be covered by the PSOB Program.
    As the PSOB Act did not define ``official capacity'' as to address 
whether an officer's off-duty actions could satisfy such requirement 
and expressly delegated to the agency in 42 U.S.C. 3796(c) the 
authority to promulgate implementing regulations, the agency may 
interpret the term ``official capacity'' in regulations so long as the 
interpretation is not arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to law.\25\ 
Moreover, the proposed rule is consistent with existing provisions that 
deem an officer's injury to be in the line of duty without regard as to 
whether the officer was functioning in an official capacity at the time 
of his or her injury--when such injury resulted from the injured 
party's status as a public safety officer.\26\
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    \25\ See Groff v. United States, 493 F.3d 1343, 1353 (Fed. Cir. 
2007) (``Congress did not further define what it means to serve `in 
an official capacity,' leaving the statute silent as to whether 
contract pilots fall within its ambit.'').
    \26\ See 28 CFR 32.3 (defining Line of duty injury).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As mentioned with regard to the proposed changes to ``line of 
duty,'' other provisions of federal law similarly recognize public 
safety officers' special role by granting rights beyond those enjoyed 
by the public at large \27\ and recognizing that local public safety 
officers often serve the public outside the officer's immediate 
jurisdiction.\28\ The proposed rule is consistent with the recognition 
afforded by those provisions. Finally, in recognizing and covering the 
risks faced by public safety officers in carrying out their obligation 
to protect the public, the limited expansion in the proposed rule is 
also consistent with one of the purposes of the PSOB Act: To recruit 
and retain public safety officers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \27\ See, e.g., Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004, 
Public Law 108-277, 118 Stat. 865, codified at 18 U.S.C. 926B, 926C 
(granting ``qualified law enforcement officers'' the right to carry 
concealed weapons across state lines, notwithstanding provisions of 
state law prohibiting or limiting concealed weapons).
    \28\ See, e.g., 5 U.S.C. 8191 (granting federal workers' 
compensation benefits to local law enforcement officers injured 
while pursuing or apprehending persons sought for crimes against the 
United States or material witnesses for federal prosecutions).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The proposed rule would add to the definition of ``official 
capacity'' a narrow exception that would deem the extraordinary acts of 
a firefighter or law enforcement officer to save a human life as 
``serving a public agency in an official capacity.'' To maintain the 
integrity and limited nature of the exception, such acts would be 
limited to those determined to be ``line of duty activity or action'' 
under the proposed exception to that definition. This proposed change 
is intended to work in conjunction with the proposed change regarding 
line of duty.
     Officially recognized or designated public employee member 
of a squad or crew: As provided in sec. 1086 of Public Law 112-239, the 
proposed rule would revise the existing definition to cover members of 
ambulance squads and rescue crews who are employed by or volunteer for 
certain nonprofit entities serving the public.
     On-site hazard management: As currently defined in 28 CFR 
32.3, the term ``fire suppression'' includes ``on-site hazard 
evaluation'' but the latter term is not defined and does not include 
the more comprehensive task, ``on-site hazard management.'' To account 
for this necessary component of firefighter work, the proposed rule 
would define on-site hazard management as including actions taken to 
provide scene security or direct traffic in support of a fire, rescue, 
or law enforcement emergency.
     Parent-child relationship: As defined in 28 CFR 32.3, the 
terms ``adopted child'' and ``stepchild'' require a PSOB determining 
official to determine whether a public safety officer had a ``parent-
child relationship'' with a child. The current definition of parent-
child relationship, i.e., a relationship between a public safety 
officer and another individual where the officer acts as a parent, 
requires that the relationship be shown by convincing evidence. This 
higher standard of proof has delayed the processing of claims involving 
claimants seeking benefits on behalf of (or as) the stepchild or 
adopted child of a deceased officer. In nearly all such claims, 
additional evidence sought to meet the higher standard has confirmed 
the initial assessment of the determining official.
    As the higher standard proof has been shown to add little certainty 
in what is inherently a subjective determination about the existence of 
a relationship that is known best by the persons directly involved in 
it, the agency proposes to revise it. The proposed rule would revise 
the definition parent-child relationship by changing the standard of 
proof from ``convincing evidence'' to the standard of ``more likely 
than not'' applicable in nearly all other PSOB Program determinations.
     PSOB Counsel: In 2013, the Attorney General directed that 
the PSOB claims process be streamlined through the consolidation of 
legal and other claims functions within BJA. Apart from a final rule 
revising the definition of ``PSOB Office'' that was published in the 
Federal Register in 2013, 78 FR 29233 (May 20, 2013), the agency has 
published no regulations identifying the entity or individual providing 
legal

[[Page 57356]]

review within BJA. In order to make more transparent the legal review 
process associated with PSOB claims, the proposed rule would identify 
PSOB Counsel as the legal staff in BJA responsible for performing legal 
review of claims for PSOB Program benefits and providing PSOB 
determining officials with legal advice in PSOB Program matters.
     Public employee member of a squad or crew: The agency 
proposes to remove this definition as a recent amendment to 42 U.S.C. 
3796b(7) in sec. 1086 of Public Law 112-239 removed the ``public 
employee'' requirement from the definition of ``member of a rescue 
squad or ambulance crew.''
     Stress or strain: As discussed in the proposed revision of 
the definition of ``injury,'' the agency's experience is that the 
public has found the definition of stress or strain very difficult to 
understand and apply. For the reasons provided, the proposed rule would 
eliminate this definition in favor of incorporating the specific 
conditions that are excluded into the definition of injury. In so 
doing, the proposed rule would make clear those conditions that are 
excluded from the definition of injury, streamline the processing of 
claims, and help to reduce the number of claims filed that, as a matter 
of law, cannot be paid due to a lack of injury.
     Suppression of fire: As currently defined, the term refers 
to the work and activities connected with extinguishing or containing a 
fire, beginning with its discovery, and includes extinguishment, 
physical prevention, or containment of fire, including on-site hazard 
evaluation. ``On-site hazard evaluation'' is logically part of a larger 
task, ``on-site hazard management.'' The current definition does not 
take into account the individual members of fire departments that are 
deployed to provide on-site hazard management activities including 
traffic incident management at emergency scenes. These individuals, 
often referred to as ``fire police,'' are officially designated members 
of a fire department, receive formal training, and perform operational 
duties that, in the absence of fire police, would be required to be 
performed by another member of the department.
    When an officially designated member has the legal authority and 
responsibility to qualify as a firefighter or law enforcement officer 
as defined in 28 CFR 32.3, and is otherwise serving a public agency in 
an official capacity, the individual qualifies as a public safety 
officer. However, in the majority of claims involving personnel whose 
specialized duties are limited to traffic incident management and other 
on-site hazard management tasks, the individual lacks the legal 
authority and responsibility to either engage in the suppression of 
fire (as currently defined), or arrest persons alleged to have violated 
the criminal laws, which precludes the individual from qualifying as a 
public safety officer as a firefighter or law enforcement officer.
    The agency's experience is that, apart from engaging in actual fire 
suppression, personnel providing on-site hazard management are at risk 
for many of the same hazards encountered at the scene of a fire as do 
personnel who engage directly in the suppression of fire as 
firefighters. Fire police and similar fire department personnel are 
exposed to the hazards of the emergency response, the hazardous 
materials and toxins released into the air at the scene of the fire, as 
well as the hazards posed by their traffic control duties that kill or 
disable firefighters.\29\ The proposed rule would expand the type of 
activities covered as fire suppression to include on-site hazard 
management, which would be addressed separately in a new definition in 
28 CFR 32.3 and would include duties such as providing scene security 
and directing traffic in response to a fire emergency.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \29\ Between 1996 and 2010, 253 firefighters were killed in 
vehicle collisions responding to and returning from incidents; 70 
more were killed after being struck by vehicles at the scene of 
emergencies. U.S. Fire Administration, Traffic Incident Management 
Systems, FA-330/March 2012, 4-5, https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa_330.pdf (accessed Feb. 26, 2016).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Voluntary intoxication at the time of the officer's fatal 
or catastrophic injury: Under 42 U.S.C. 3796a(2), the agency is 
prohibited from paying benefits ``if the public safety officer was 
voluntarily intoxicated at the time of his fatal or catastrophic 
injury.'' Under the current regulation implementing 42 U.S.C. 3796a(2), 
a public safety officer is considered to be voluntarily intoxicated 
when a drug test establishes in the body of a public safety officer, 
the presence, in any amount, of a drug listed in the Schedules of 
Controlled Substances. See e.g., 21 U.S.C. 812; 21 CFR, part 1308. In 
the overwhelming majority of claims, the officer is found to have been 
taking a prescribed drug consistent with such prescription and not 
intoxicated at the time of fatal or catastrophic injury. However, BJA 
and claimants expend significant resources in determining that this 
limitation is not implicated, which delays the processing of otherwise 
valid claims. To enable BJA to focus its inquiry on those drugs used as 
intoxicants and those that generally produce intoxication, the proposed 
rule would makes several substantive changes to the existing rule 
pertaining to how voluntary intoxication is determined with regards to 
drugs.
    The proposed rule would, among other things, revise existing 
language to provide that voluntary intoxication is not automatically 
established when the presence of drugs in the body of the public safety 
officer is generally within prescribed limits and the public safety 
officer was not acting in an intoxicated manner immediately prior to 
the injury. To account for circumstances under which there is no 
witness available to attest as to whether an officer was acting in an 
intoxicated manner immediately before a fatal injury, the proposed rule 
would clarify, consistent with BJA's current interpretation, that 
voluntary intoxication is not implicated when convincing evidence 
establishes that the drug would not produce intoxication in the amount 
present in the officer's body.
     Volunteer fire department: Under 42 U.S.C. 3796b(9)(A), to 
be eligible for benefits as a public safety officer, a firefighter must 
be serving ``a public agency in an official capacity.'' Under the 
current definition of ``official capacity'' in 28 CFR 32.3, an 
otherwise qualified volunteer firefighter who is an officially 
recognized or designated member of a legally established volunteer fire 
department (VFD) cannot be considered to be serving a public agency in 
an official capacity and therefore cannot be a public safety officer, 
unless a public agency recognizes (or, at a minimum, does not deny) 
that the volunteer firefighter's acts and omissions are legally those 
of the public agency.
    BJA's experience is that in most PSOB claims involving volunteer 
firefighters, the ``public agency'' and ``official capacity'' 
requirements for the individual volunteer firefighter are satisfied 
when the VFD establishes that it is an ``instrumentality'' of a public 
agency under 28 CFR 32.3 (defining Instrumentality) and that, as such, 
the public agency is legally responsible for the acts and omissions of 
its members. In a relatively recent trend, the agency has received 
claims in which a VFD does not fully qualify as an instrumentality 
despite providing fire protection to a public agency as a 
noncommercial, non-profit corporation. In nearly all claims in which a 
VFD does not qualify as an instrumentality, it is because the public 
agency denies legal responsibility for the acts and omissions of the 
VFD. Such denial is often manifested in a contract or similar agreement 
for services under which the public agency expressly states that it is 
not responsible for the acts or omissions

[[Page 57357]]

of the VFD. Under such contracts, the public agency may require the VFD 
to obtain its own insurance (even as the public agency provides the VFD 
with funding for operations) and indemnify and hold harmless the public 
agency for its acts and omissions or those of its members. Such 
contracts may also refer to the volunteer firefighter members of such 
VFDs as ``independent contractors'' of the public agency despite the 
fact that the volunteer firefighters are officially recognized members 
of the VFD, itself a non-commercial, nonprofit corporation.
    Since the enactment of the PSOB Act in 1976 and before the agency 
defined in regulations the terms ``official capacity'' and 
``instrumentality,'' qualified members of legally organized VFDs have 
generally been considered to be public safety officers. To preserve 
this eligibility and address the trend of shifting liability, the 
proposed rule provides that a VFD qualifies as an instrumentality as 
defined in 28 CFR part 32 if it is legally established as a public 
entity or nonprofit entity serving the public, and it is legally 
established solely for the purpose of providing fire protection and 
related services on a noncommercial basis to or on behalf of a public 
agency or agencies. The proposed rule also provides that to qualify as 
an instrumentality under this provision, a VFD must provide fire 
protection to members of the public without preference or subscription 
fees. The proposed rule would preserve the existing PSOB Act coverage 
of volunteer firefighters serving the public in noncommercial, 
nonprofit VFDs and leave undisturbed the agency's longstanding 
interpretation that, as a general rule, commercial entities cannot 
establish status as a public agency or as an instrumentality of a 
public agency.

Section 32.5 Evidence

    Under current Sec.  32.5(a), claimants have ``the burden of 
persuasion as to all material issues of fact, and by the standard of 
proof of `more likely than not.' '' The proposed rule would retain this 
standard of proof, and simplify the current description of claimants' 
burden by providing that claimants are responsible for establishing all 
elements of eligibility for the benefit they seek.
    The proposed rule would replace the standard for evidentiary 
submissions in current Sec.  32.5(c), Federal Rules of Evidence 301, 
401, 402, 602-604, 701-704, 901-903, and 1001-1007, with a general 
standard for admissibility similar to that used in other federal 
benefit programs. See e.g., 20 CFR 10.115 (providing that the evidence 
submitted in a claim for Office of Workers' Compensation benefits 
``must be reliable, probative and substantial''). Although the Federal 
Rules of Evidence provide a precise set of rules for evaluating 
evidentiary submissions in litigation, BJA believes that a less formal 
and legalistic set of standards is better suited for an administrative, 
non-adversarial claims process in which most claimants are 
unrepresented. The proposed rule provides that a claimant's evidence 
must be worthy of belief (credible), tending to prove an issue 
(probative), and actually existing (substantial). The proposed rule 
would also provide that, when deemed necessary by a PSOB determining 
official, a claimant must produce original documents or other copies 
verified as true and exact by a custodian of such records.
    Under current 28 CFR 32.5(i), BJA considers a public safety 
officer's response to a call to provide emergency service ``prima facie 
evidence'' that the activity was ``nonroutine'' for purposes of 
applying the presumption in 42 U.S.C. 3696(k). The agency's experience, 
which is substantiated by research showing that a public safety 
officer's sympathetic nervous system is activated with his or her 
receipt of an alarm, is that a public safety officer's response to an 
emergency call to perform public safety activity, which generally 
begins when an officer receives such call, also constitutes evidence of 
the response's physically stressful character. Accordingly, the 
proposed rule provides that a public safety officer's response to a 
call for emergency service shall also constitute prima facie evidence 
that the response was physically stressful for purposes of 42 U.S.C. 
3796(k).
    As stated, generally, the evidence of record in a claim must 
establish material issues of fact to the standard of proof of ``more 
likely than not.'' However, the unique circumstances of public safety 
work results in PSOB claims in which many of the incidents or injuries 
that are the basis of the claim may be without numerous witnesses or 
extensive documentation. To address the evidentiary challenges posed by 
the hazards and risks of public safety activity and the unpredictable 
nature of such work, the agency proposes a limited exception to this 
standard of proof by adding add a new Sec.  32.5(k) that would address 
situations in which the proof on either side of an issue is equal. The 
proposed rule would provide that where the determining official 
determines the record evidence to be equivalent regarding a fact 
material to whether or not the circumstances of the death or injury of 
the officer warrant coverage as a death or permanent and total 
disability incurred in the line of duty under the Act, the determining 
official shall resolve the matter in favor of the claimant. The 
proposed rule makes clear that the absence of evidence in support of a 
particular fact does not establish that the evidence is equivalent and 
that the provision is not a substitute for actual evidence establishing 
or disproving a particular fact.
    The proposed rule would also replace the prerequisite certification 
regulations at 28 CFR 32.15 and 32.25 with a single provision at Sec.  
32.5(l) authorizing PSOB determining officials to require from a 
claimant any proof necessary to establish facts of eligibility 
essential for death, disability, or education claims under the PSOB Act 
including proof of birth, death, disability, earnings, education, 
employment, and injury. Under the current rule, without a waiver from 
the BJA Director for good cause shown, BJA may not approve any death or 
disability claim unless the public safety officer's agency produces a 
certification as defined in Sec.  32.3 and specific types of supporting 
documentation. For example, even in a claim for PSOB death benefits in 
which the public agency has paid death benefits to the public safety 
officer's survivors, BJA may not pay benefits without a certification 
(or, as appropriate a waiver for good cause shown) from the public 
safety officer's agency that the officer died as ``a direct and 
proximate result of a line of duty injury'', or that the public safety 
officer's survivors have received ``the maximum death benefits legally 
payable by the agency'' to similarly situated public safety officers.
    BJA's experience is that the prerequisite certification regulations 
impose an extremely high level of precision on the claims process, 
often require the public safety officer's agency to make legal and 
medical conclusions they are not qualified to make, and produce delays 
in adjudication. The better course, and one keeping in line with other 
government claims programs would be to allow claimants and agencies to 
provide documents establishing eligibility from a variety of sources 
including but, not limited to, death certificates, autopsies, 
toxicology reports, coroner's reports, police reports, investigative 
reports, workers compensation determinations, State-law line of duty 
death determinations, insurance policies, newspaper and media reports, 
and statements from the officer's public agency. Taken together, such 
documents are more than adequate to establish the relevant facts and 
circumstances of a public safety officer's injury and the eligibility 
of beneficiary.

[[Page 57358]]

In replacing the prerequisite certification and waiver requirements 
with a process tailored to the facts of individual claims, the proposed 
rule would reduce administrative burden and improve the efficiency of 
the process by reducing delays for unnecessary documents and or 
waivers.
    In a recent report on the PSOB Program, the OIG recommended that 
BJA implement ``an abandonment policy that gives claimants adequate 
opportunity to provide needed documentation to support their claims and 
ensures that the PSOB Office does not use its limited resources 
conducting outreach on claims, especially those which claimants do not 
intend to pursue.'' \30\ To aid in implementing the OIG's finding, OJP 
proposes to define in a new Sec.  32.5(m), the circumstances under 
which a claim is considered to be abandoned.
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    \30\ U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 
Audit of the Office of Justice Programs' Processing of Public Safety 
Officers' Benefit Programs Claims, Audit Division 15-21 at 11 (July 
7, 2015).
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    The proposed rule would consolidate most abandonment provisions in 
a single provision. Under the proposed rule, when a claimant or agency 
who does not furnish evidence necessary to a determination within one 
year of BJA's request, or a claimant fails to pursue in a timely 
fashion a determination on his or her claim, following appropriate 
notice BJA will consider the claim abandoned and take no further action 
on the claim unless it received a complete claim, including the 
specific information requested, within 180 days from notice of 
abandonment. Consistent with current practice, the claim would be 
considered as though never filed, and abandonment would not toll the 
time periods remaining for filing. In providing claimants with a one-
year period to respond to requests for evidence, as well as a ``grace 
period'' in which claimants may reopen an abandoned claim, the proposed 
rule provides adequate time for claimants to provide documents 
supporting their claims while permitting BJA to dedicate its resources 
to those claims that can be decided on the evidence of record.

Section 32.7--Fees for Representative Services

    Under 42 U.S.C. 3796c, the agency is authorized to promulgate 
``regulations governing the recognition of agents or other persons 
representing claimants.'' The agency has exercised its regulatory 
authority to establish in current Sec.  32.7 provisions governing the 
circumstances under which representatives may charge fees for 
representative services in a claim for benefits under the PSOB Act. 
Claimants for representative services provided in connection with a 
claim for PSOB Act benefits may not charge fees for representative 
services based on a stipulated, percentage, or contingency fee 
recovered and may not charge fees in excess of the amount permitted 
under the Equal Access to Justice Act, currently $125 per hour. All 
petitions seeking authorization to charge fees, whether contested by 
the PSOB claimant-beneficiary or not, are subject to a review for 
reasonableness based on the factors in Sec.  32.7(c)(1)-(8). 
Additionally, the current rules do not address who may provide 
representation in PSOB claims, nor do they address whether non-attorney 
representatives may charge fees for representation.
    The agency proposes to revise Sec.  32.7 to limit paid 
representation to attorneys and support staff under their direct 
supervision, keep fees at a reasonable level consistent with the 
purpose of the program, and improve the processing of claims involving 
attorney representatives. The intent in so doing is to enable claimants 
to more easily obtain qualified representation in claims for PSOB death 
or disability benefits.
    In conjunction with a proposed definition of the term ``attorney'' 
as a member in good standing of a State bar, the proposed rule would 
limit authorization to charge fees for representative services to such 
attorneys. The agency views limiting paid representation to attorneys 
as a means of ensuring that individuals providing paid representation 
in PSOB claims are capable of providing competent representation, are 
obligated to provide representation according to code of professional 
ethics, and are subject to oversight and compliance by an independent 
licensing body. As non-attorney representatives are not subject to 
similar testing, ethical requirements, and independent monitoring, the 
agency proposes to continue to permit them to provide representation 
but prohibit such individuals from charging claimants fees for 
representative services.
    The proposed rule would permit fees for representative services to 
be based on a fixed fee, hourly rate, a percentage of benefits 
recovered, or a combination of such bases. To enable BJA to maintain 
its oversight role regarding fees, the proposed rule would require that 
claimants provide to the PSOB Office before seeking authorization to 
charge fees a copy of any fee agreement for representative services 
under the Act. To keep fees reasonable, the proposed rule would 
prohibit fees for representative services in excess of 12 percent of 
the total PSOB death or disability payment available to a claimant 
regardless of how the fee agreement is structured.\31\ To expedite the 
review of fee petitions, the proposed rule would also establish a 
presumption of reasonableness for representative's fees not exceeding 8 
percent of the total PSOB death or disability payment available to a 
claimant in a claim resolved at the PSOB Office level, and establish a 
presumption of reasonableness for representative's fees not exceeding 
10 percent of the total PSOB death or disability payment available to a 
claimant in a claim resolved at the Hearing Officer or BJA Director 
level. These presumptions of reasonableness would be rebuttable if an 
examination of the factors in Sec.  32.7(c) established that the fee is 
unreasonable.
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    \31\ By way of example, in a claim for benefits based on an 
officer's death that occurred in FY2014, the total benefit payable 
under 42 U.S.C. 3796(a) is $333,604.68. In a claim involving a 
surviving spouse and two children, an attorney representing the two 
children would be prohibited from charging fees in excess of 
$20,016.28, which represents 12% of the children's combined \1/2\ 
share of benefits, $166,892.34.
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Section 32.9 Complete Application

    One of the recommendations of OJP's independent BPI review of the 
PSOB Program was that, to improve the efficiency of claims processing, 
BJA should require a minimum set of supporting information before 
assigning a claim number and routing the claim for review to reduce the 
time incomplete claims remain unresolved and to focus BJA resources on 
those claimants who need assistance in submitting an application for 
benefits.\32\ Consistent with other government claims programs, the BPI 
review recommended that the PSOB Office shift its focus from a one-on-
one outreach model to an approach that returns the responsibilities to 
the claimant and agency to gather, organize, and submit all required 
prior to filing a PSOB claim, and being assigned a claim number. 
Related to the minimum required documents concept, for BJA to establish 
and implement meaningful timeliness standards for its processing of 
claims, claims must necessarily be complete and ripe for determination 
before the ``clock'' starts on calculating the days required by BJA to 
process a claim to completion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \32\ In a sample of claims reviewed, the BPI review found that 
an average of 148 days was spent on outreach in death and disability 
claims.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    To improve the efficiency of claims processing pursuant to the BPI 
recommendation, the agency proposes to add a new Sec.  32.9 defining 
what

[[Page 57359]]

constitutes a ``complete application'' for benefits under the PSOB Act 
and implementing regulations prescribing BJA's obligations when it 
receives such an application. BJA's current practice when it receives 
an application for benefits that lacks the basic required documents to 
render a determination is to assign it a claim number, process it as a 
claim from the moment a claim form is received, and conduct biweekly 
outreach efforts to obtain from the applicant and the officer's public 
agency information required to establish eligibility for benefits. 
BJA's experience is that it allocates significant resources to 
repeatedly prompting applicants for benefits and public agencies as to 
what basic required documents they must submit to establish eligibility 
when BJA's resources could be reallocated to processing otherwise 
complete applications.
    Under the proposed rule, following publication of a Notice in the 
Federal Register consistent with 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(1)(C), the PSOB Office 
would maintain and publish on the PSOB Program Web site a list of basic 
required documents that claimants would be required to file with 
applications for PSOB Program death, disability, and education 
benefits. These documents would represent the absolute minimum 
documentation BJA would accept before treating an application as a 
claim, devoting resources to processing it. This documentation, once 
submitted, would constitute a ``complete application.'' By precluding 
incomplete applications from being considered as claims in the first 
instance, the proposed rule would support the OIG and BPI 
recommendations and BJA's efforts to effectively allocate its resources 
and avoid issuing merits-based determinations denying benefits based on 
obviously incomplete applications, which would simply shift initial 
evidentiary development to determinations by Hearing Officers and the 
BJA Director.
    The proposed rule provides that when BJA receives an application 
for benefits without the basic required documents (as indicated on the 
Web site), BJA will notify the applicant in writing of the evidence and 
information necessary to complete the application, and advise the 
applicant that BJA will not process the incomplete application as a 
claim for benefits until the remainder of the documents are received. 
For purposes of determining whether a claim was timely filed under 
proposed 28 CFR 32.12 and 32.22, an applicant's submission of either a 
claim form or report form, i.e., a Report of Public Safety Officer's 
Death, Claim for Death Benefits, or Report of Public Safety Officers' 
Permanent And Total Disability, even though not constituting a complete 
application, would be sufficient to satisfy the requirement that a 
claim must be filed within three years of the officer's death or 
injury. To prevent applicants from being prejudiced based on an 
inability to provide necessary information, the proposed rule would 
provide that an application will not be considered incomplete if an 
applicant's inability to file basic required documents was the result 
of a public agency's refusal or inability to provide the information 
identified in this section if the applicant provides to the PSOB Office 
written justification for his or her inability to provide the 
information and the justification demonstrates that such inability to 
file evidence is not due to any fault of the applicant.

Section 32.10 PSOB Counsel

    Nothing in the PSOB Act or implementing regulations prescribes the 
relationship between PSOB Counsel and PSOB determining officials. To 
make transparent the role of PSOB Counsel and the scope of Counsel's 
review in the PSOB claims process, proposed Sec.  32.10 would require 
that PSOB determining officials seek legal advice from PSOB Counsel 
before determining a claim. However, the proposed rule would limit the 
scope of such advice to the interpretation of law under the PSOB Act 
and implementing regulations and, unless directed otherwise by the 
Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs, PSOB 
Counsel would be precluded from reviewing findings of fact made by PSOB 
determining officials.

Section 32.12 Time for Filing a Claim

    Under current Sec.  32.12, unless the time for filing is extended 
by the BJA Director for good cause shown, a claimant (applicant under 
proposed Sec.  32.9) must file a claim for PSOB Program death benefits 
before the later of three years from the date of the public safety 
officer's death, or one year after a final determination of survivors 
benefits or statement from the public agency that it was not legally 
authorized to pay survivors benefits on behalf of such an officer. 
Consistent with proposed Sec.  32.5(l), and to simplify administration 
of the program, the proposed rule would eliminate provisions associated 
with the one-year requirement as well as all provisions referring to 
prerequisite certification and provide that no application shall be 
considered if it is filed with the PSOB Office more than three years 
after the public safety officer's death.

Section 32.13 Definitions

    Section 32.13 provides definitions applicable to claims for PSOB 
Program death benefits. OJP proposes to add new definitions or revise 
existing definitions in Sec.  32.13 as follows:
     Beneficiary of a life insurance policy of a public safety 
officer: Where it has been established that public safety officer died 
as the direct and proximate result of a personal injury sustained in 
the line of duty injury, and there is no surviving spouse, surviving 
child, or surviving individual designated by the officer to receive the 
PSOB Program death benefit, under 42 U.S.C. 3796(a)(4)(B), BJA will pay 
the surviving individual(s) designated by the public safety officer to 
receive benefits under the officer's most recently executed life 
insurance policy on file at the time of death with the public safety 
agency.
    Under regulations in 28 CFR 32.13 defining ``beneficiary of a life 
insurance policy of a public safety officer,'' BJA may consider as 
revoked a life insurance beneficiary designation which lists a former 
spouse who, following the designation, was divorced from the public 
safety officer, unless it is demonstrated that the officer had no 
intentions of revoking the designation for his or her former spouse.
    Similar to the regulation regarding former spouses, the proposed 
rule would add a new paragraph (3) permitting BJA to consider as 
revoked a designation in a life insurance policy of a beneficiary who 
dies after the public safety officer but before a determination can be 
made in favor of a living contingent beneficiary. In the circumstances 
described, the proposed rule would enable BJA to honor the public 
safety officer's designation of a contingent beneficiary rather than 
disregarding it in favor of the next category of eligible 
beneficiaries, surviving parents.
     Engagement in a situation involving law enforcement, fire 
suppression, rescue, hazardous material response, emergency medical 
services, prison security, disaster relief, or other emergency response 
activity: For a fatal heart attack, stroke, or vascular rupture to 
qualify for the statutory presumption of death resulting from a line of 
duty injury in 42 U.S.C. 3796(k), a public safety officer must, among 
other things, engage in a situation involving specific line-of-duty 
actions or participate in a training exercise as defined in 28 CFR

[[Page 57360]]

32.13.\33\ A public safety officer engages in qualifying activity when 
he or she is actually engaging in law enforcement, suppressing fire, or 
performing one of the other types of activity currently defined in 28 
CFR 32.13.
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    \33\ The activities in which a public safety officer must engage 
to obtain the benefit of the presumption, e.g., law enforcement, are 
defined in 28 CFR 32.3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The agency's experience is that the ``engagement'' activities 
listed in the law, in some cases, necessarily require other activities 
to take place prior to a public safety engagement. For example, a 
firefighter may need to clear the snow from the driveway of a fire 
station, or change a flat tire on a fire truck before the public agency 
can engage in fire suppression. Although ``engagement in a situation 
involving . . . fire suppression'' generally begins with the 
department's or agency's request for a particular officer to perform 
this type of activity, under the current rules, it generally cannot be 
said to include the clearing of the station's driveway or the changing 
of a tire unless such action is performed in the course of the actual 
engagement.
    The proposed rule would expand the current regulatory definition to 
cover only those line of duty actions or activities that, if not 
performed, would directly preclude the public agency from providing 
fire suppression, rescue, hazardous material response, emergency 
medical services, prison security, disaster relief, or other emergency 
response activity. Thus, the proposed definition would cover as part of 
an engagement under 42 U.S.C. 3796(k) a public safety officer's 
changing of a flat tire on a fire truck necessary for the public agency 
to engage in fire suppression.
     Nonroutine strenuous physical activity: To be eligible for 
the presumption in 42 U.S.C. 3796(k), a public safety officer must, 
among other things, either participate in a training exercise or in a 
situation involving nonroutine stressful or strenuous physical 
activity. The agency has defined ``nonroutine stressful or strenuous 
physical activity'' in regulations as two distinct terms: ``nonroutine 
stressful physical activity'' and ``nonroutine strenuous physical 
activity.''
    Generally speaking, nonroutine strenuous physical activity is 
defined in 28 CFR 32.13 as line of duty activity that (1) is not 
excluded as clerical, administrative, or non-manual in nature, (2) is 
not routinely performed, and (3) requires ``an unusually-high level of 
physical exertion.'' Whether a public safety officer's activity 
constitutes an ``unusually high-level of physical exertion'' has often 
proven challenging for claimants to demonstrate and the agency to 
evaluate.\34\
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    \34\ See Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 
The Office of Justice Programs' Implementation of the Hometown 
Heroes Survivors Benefits Act of 2003, I-2008-005 i (March 2008) 
(explaining that OIG conducted its review ``in response to concerns 
expressed by several members of Congress . . . that OJP's narrow 
interpretation of terms found in the Act--in particular the phrases 
``nonroutine stressful or strenuous physical activity'' and 
``competent medical evidence to the contrary''--might be resulting 
in a high rate of claims denials'').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    To make clear what constitutes ``strenuous,'' and to facilitate 
more consistent decision making, the agency proposes to replace the 
term ``unusually-high'' with the term ``vigorous.'' The use of vigorous 
as a descriptor is appropriate as it is used by the Centers for Disease 
Control (CDC) to characterize physical activity that exceeds a moderate 
level of intensity.\35\ Relevant to a standard that must be applied to 
public safety officers, the CDC's examples take into consideration an 
individual's age and weight. The proposed rule would not expand the 
type of physical activity considered to be strenuous, but rather would 
make claims processing more efficient by providing the public and the 
agency with a recognized standard that is more easily understood and 
applied.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \35\ See e.g., Centers for Disease Control, General Physical 
Activities Defined by Level of Intensity, http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/physical/pdf/PA_Intensity_table_2_1.pdf (accessed Feb. 
11, 2016).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Nonroutine stressful physical activity: To be eligible for 
the presumption in 42 U.S.C. 3796(k), a public safety officer's 
participation in a training exercise or engagement in a situation 
involving law enforcement, etc., must also involve either nonroutine 
stressful physical activity or nonroutine strenuous physical activity. 
Generally speaking, nonroutine stressful physical activity is defined 
in current 28 CFR 32.13 as line of duty activity that (1) is not 
excluded as clerical, administrative, or non-manual in nature, (2) is 
not routinely performed, and (3) is not capable of being performed 
without minimal physical exertion. The ``stressful'' component of an 
officer's nonroutine stressful physical activity is evaluated 
differently according to whether the officer was (1) engaged in a 
situation involving law enforcement, fire suppression, rescue, 
hazardous material response, emergency medical services, prison 
security, disaster relief, or other emergency response activity, or (2) 
was participating in a training exercise.
    Under current 28 CFR 32.13, an officer's engagement in a situation 
is considered ``stressful'' if, when viewed objectively, the 
circumstances of the engagement expose, or appear to expose, the 
officer to ``significant'' perils or harms not encountered by the 
public in the ordinary course and, as a result, cause the officer to 
suffer an ``unusually high'' degree of distress manifested by fear, 
apprehension, anxiety, or unease. Similarly, under the same regulation, 
an officer's participation in a training exercise is considered 
``stressful'' if, when viewed objectively, the circumstances replicate 
situations that expose the officer to significant perils or harms, and, 
as a result, cause the officer to suffer an ``unusually-high'' degree 
of distress manifested by fear, apprehension, anxiety, or unease.
    Similar to the agency's experience with implementing the term 
``nonroutine strenuous physical activity,'' whether a public safety 
officer's activity exposes the officer to ``significant'' dangers or 
produces an ``unusually-high'' degree of distress has often proven 
challenging for claimants to demonstrate and the agency to evaluate. 
Although it is clear that a traffic stop, arrest of a suspect, response 
to a motor vehicle accident, or response to a structure fire each 
expose an officer to significant threats not ordinarily encountered by 
a member of the public when viewed objectively, produce in the officer 
some degree of distress, i.e., ``fear or anxiety,'' it is difficult for 
BJA, the public agency, or the claimant to establish whether these 
circumstances expose the officer a significant peril or an ``unusually-
high level'' of distress, i.e., ``fear or anxiety.''
    To make clear what constitutes ``stressful'' activity and to 
facilitate more consistent decision making, the agency proposes to 
eliminate in the regulatory definition the term ``significant,'' and to 
replace the term ``unusually-high'' with ``unusual.'' The elimination 
of these qualifiers will maintain the integrity of the statutory 
requirement that the activity be ``stressful'' while aligning the text 
of the regulation with circumstances faced by public safety officers 
and the agency's interpretation of such circumstances. The proposed 
rule would not expand the type of physical activity considered to be 
stressful, but rather would make claims processing more efficient by 
providing the public and the agency with a standard that is more easily 
understood and applied.

[[Page 57361]]

Section 32.14 PSOB Office Determination

    Consistent with proposed Sec.  32.5(m), which consolidates all 
abandonment provisions into a single paragraph, the proposed rule would 
remove paragraph (b), which prescribes abandonment provisions for death 
claims.

Section 32.15 Prerequisite Certification

    Consistent with proposed Sec.  32.5(l), which replaces Sec. Sec.  
32.15 and 32.25, the proposed rule would remove Sec.  32.15 which 
prescribes prerequisite certification requirements for death claims.

Section 32.16 Payment

    Under current Sec.  32.16(a), BJA may not pay more than one person 
on the basis of being a public safety officer's parent as a mother, or 
on that basis as a father. In cases where more than one parent 
qualifies as the officer's father, or as the officer's mother, the 
regulation currently limits BJA's payment to the ``one with whom the 
officer considered himself, as of the injury date, to have the closest 
relationship.'' The regulation also provides that a biological or 
legally adoptive parent whose parental rights have not been terminated 
is rebuttably presumed to have had the closest relationship with the 
officer.
    BJA's experience is that there may exist circumstances in which 
more than two persons share with the public safety officer a close 
personal relationship as a parent. The proposed rule would retain the 
presumption that a biological or legally adoptive parent whose parental 
rights have not been terminated is presumed to be a ``parent,'' but 
permit BJA to pay in equal shares additional persons as the parent of a 
public safety officer when evidence demonstrates that there exists such 
a relationship as defined in 28 CFR 32.13.
    Current regulations do not make clear the agency's interpretation 
regarding the payment of benefits to a surviving individual in a 
category of beneficiaries with more than one beneficiary. For example, 
in an approved PSOB claim in which the surviving parents are the 
appropriate beneficiaries under 42 U.S.C. 3796(a)(5), and one of the 
parents has not filed a claim for benefits but there is no evidence 
that the non-filing parent is deceased, agency practice is to hold the 
share payable to the surviving parent in the event that the non-filing 
parent may file a claim, or, if he or she failed to file a claim in the 
time prescribed, a request for an extension of time to file. To make 
clear the agency's interpretation and to provide for the timely payment 
of benefits to individuals determined to be eligible for benefits, BJA 
proposes to add a new Sec.  32.6(d) that would address such situations. 
The proposed rule would consider deceased and therefore ineligible, any 
person, who, being 18 years of age, or older at the date of the public 
safety officer's injury, and not incapable of self-support as defined 
in 42 U.S.C. 3796b(3)(C), failed to file an application for benefits 
within the time prescribed for such filing. Thus, if one of two 
surviving parents failed to file a written claim, the agency would hold 
the non-filing parent's share until the time for filing had expired. 
After such time, the agency would pay the remaining one-half share to 
the filing parent. The proposed rule is intended to prevent an adult 
beneficiary's failure to file a claim for benefits from hindering BJA's 
ability to fairly and timely distribute program benefits amongst a 
public safety officer's eligible beneficiaries.

Section 32.22 Time for Filing a Claim

    Under current Sec.  32.22, unless the time for filing is extended 
by the BJA Director for good cause shown, a claimant must file a claim 
for PSOB Program disability benefits before the later of three years 
from the date of the public safety officer's injury, or one year after 
a final determination of disability benefits by the public agency or 
statement from the public agency that it was not legally authorized to 
pay disability benefits on behalf of such officer. Consistent with 
proposed Sec.  32.5(l), and to simplify administration of the program, 
the proposed rule would eliminate provisions associated with the one-
year requirement as well as all provisions referring to prerequisite 
certification, and provide that no application shall be considered if 
it is filed with the PSOB Office more than three years after the public 
safety officer's injury.

Section 32.23 Definitions

    Section 32.23 provides definitions applicable to claims for PSOB 
disability benefits. OJP proposes to revise existing definitions in 
Sec.  32.23 as follows:
     Gainful work: The proposed rule would redefine the term 
``gainful work'' to provide a framework for PSOB determining officials 
to analyze whether any type or amount of work performed for pay 
disqualifies a claimant for PSOB Program disability benefits who has 
been found by medical professionals to be permanently and significantly 
disabled from a line of duty injury.
    To establish eligibility for the payment of disability benefits 
under the PSOB Act, it is not enough that a claimant is unable to 
perform the duties of a public safety officer as the result of a line 
of duty injury.\36\ Rather, the claimant must be permanently unable to 
perform any ``gainful work'' as the result of a line of duty 
injury.\37\ ``Gainful work'' as currently defined in 28 CFR 32.23 
generally refers to either full- or part-time activity for which an 
individual is paid or would ordinarily be paid Under current PSOB 
regulations, the agency determines whether a claimant is unable to 
perform any gainful work based upon a medical, and in some cases, 
vocational assessment, of the claimant's residual functional capacity, 
i.e., what the claimant is capable of doing despite the disabling 
conditions he or she incurred in the line of duty.\38\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \36\ Under 42 U.S.C. 3796(b), the agency pays disability 
benefits when it ``determines that a public safety officer has 
become [both] permanently and totally disabled as the direct and 
proximate result of a personal injury sustained in the line of 
duty.''
    \37\ See 42 U.S.C. 3796b(1) (defining ``catastrophic injury'').
    \38\ 28 CFR 32.23 (defining Residual functional capacity).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As a part of its assessment of disability, the agency also reviews 
a claimant's tax records to determine whether a claimant has received 
wages in return for work since the date of injury, or, as appropriate, 
since the date the officer was found disabled by his or her public 
agency or separated from his or her public agency by reason of 
disability. The agency has generally interpreted current regulations 
defining ``gainful work'' as precluding a finding of total disability 
when a claimant has, after his or her disability retirement or 
separation, and contemporaneous with the filing of an application for 
disability benefits, received any wages in return for work, regardless 
of the amount of wages received or the type of work for which the wages 
were paid.
    In the overwhelming majority of cases, the current regulations 
defining ``gainful work'' work well. However, in some complex cases, a 
claimant found by both medical and vocational professionals to be 
totally and permanently disabled has nevertheless performed activity 
that either is actually compensated, (e.g., a claimant with significant 
orthopedic and cognitive disabilities received $100 honorarium for 
serving on an organization's governance board), or is commonly 
compensated, (e.g., a claimant with cognitive impairment resulting from 
a severe brain injury volunteers intermittently at a hospital by 
providing directions at an information desk). Despite each claimant 
having been found to be ``incapable of performing

[[Page 57362]]

any gainful work'' as demonstrated by objective medical examination and 
tests, under the current regulatory definition of ``gainful work,'' the 
claimant's performance of work that ``actually is compensated or 
commonly is compensated'' would generally disqualify them from 
disability benefits.
    In such circumstances, the current definition's emphasis on whether 
work is actually or commonly paid as the single measure of what 
constitutes ``gainful'' work, without regard to the nature and quantity 
of work actually performed or the amount of payment received, does not 
provide an equitable framework for the PSOB determining official to 
determine whether the claimant is in fact totally disabled. The agency 
believes that evidence that a claimant received $150 for intermittent 
work activity that was offered and performed for therapeutic reasons, 
sheltered work, or was otherwise performed outside the scope of 
competitive employment, should not, by itself, preclude a finding of 
total disability under the PSOB Act.
    As a result, the agency proposes to revise the definition of 
gainful work to provide that any such work activity must be both 
substantial and gainful. The proposed rule would define substantial 
work activity on the basis of whether the activities performed involved 
significant mental or physical activities and would provide examples of 
work activity that is and is not considered substantial. The proposed 
rule would define gainful work activity similarly to the current 
definition of gainful work by characterizing work activity as gainful 
if it is actually or commonly compensated, i.e., performed for pay, but 
exclude from compensation reimbursement for incidental expenses such as 
parking or de minimis compensation.
    The revised definition will enable the agency to fairly determine 
whether a claimant who has been determined, pursuant to a medical 
assessment, to be permanently and totally disabled but nonetheless 
performs some sort of paid work activity, should be awarded disability 
benefits.
     Permanently disabled: Under 28 CFR 32.23, permanent 
disability is shown when a medical assessment establishes ``to a degree 
of medical certainty,'' i.e., by clear and convincing evidence, that a 
claimant's condition will progressively deteriorate or remain constant 
over his or her expected lifetime, or has reached maximum medical 
improvement. The higher standard of proof associated with ``medical 
certainty'' imposed by the current regulation but not required by law 
often requires the agency to conduct additional evidentiary 
development, particularly in claims with conflicting medical opinions. 
The agency's experience in applying the higher standard of proof is 
that it does not necessarily provide additional certainty as the 
determining official, as in other claims, makes determinations of 
eligibility by weighing the evidence, assessing its probative value, 
and determining which evidence is entitled to more weight and or 
credibility. As a result, the agency believes applying the standard of 
proof ``to a degree of medical probability'' would lessen the burden on 
claimants and the agency to establish permanent disability, would 
reduce delays in processing disability claims, and would not impact the 
integrity of the PSOB Program in any way. As a result, the agency 
proposes to revise the regulation to change the standard of proof 
required to establish a permanent level of disability from ``medical 
certainty'' to ``medical probability.''
     Totally disabled: Under current regulations in 28 CFR 
32.23, total disability is shown when a medical assessment establishes 
``to a degree of medical certainty,'' i.e., by clear and convincing 
evidence, that a claimant's residual functional capacity (that which a 
medical and vocational assessment demonstrates that the claimant can do 
despite his or her disability) is such that he or she cannot perform 
any gainful work. For the reasons discussed in the proposed revision to 
the definition of ``permanent disabled,'' the agency proposes to revise 
the regulation to change the standard of proof required to establish 
such level of disability from ``medical certainty'' to ``medical 
probability.''

Section 32.24 PSOB Office Determination

    Consistent with proposed Sec.  32.5(o), which consolidates all 
abandonment provisions into a single paragraph, the proposed rule would 
remove paragraph (b), which prescribes abandonment provisions for 
disability claims. The proposed rule would also remove references to 
reconsideration of negative disability findings.

Section 32.25 Prerequisite Certification

    Consistent with proposed Sec.  32.5(l), which replaces Sec. Sec.  
32.15 and 32.25, the proposed rule would remove Sec.  32.25, which 
prescribes prerequisite certification requirements for disability 
claims.

Sec.  32.27 Motion for Reconsideration of Negative Disability Finding

    Under current Sec.  32.27, a claimant whose claim is denied on the 
basis that the evidence has not established that the disability is 
total and permanent may move for reconsideration, under Sec.  32.28, of 
the specific finding as to the total and permanent character of the 
claimed disability in lieu of requesting a Hearing Officer 
determination with respect to the same. Although providing an 
alternative to a Hearing Officer determination, the process is 
cumbersome, confusing to claimants, and since fiscal year 2011, fewer 
than 10 claimants have sought to take advantage of this provision. Due 
to its lack of use, BJA proposes to remove this rule, but would 
continue its application for those claims currently in the 
reconsideration process. For the reasons discussed, BJA also proposes 
to remove Sec.  32.28 and provisions in Sec.  32.29 referring to such 
motions.

Sec.  32.33 Definitions

    Section 32.33 provides definitions applicable to PSOB education 
benefits. OJP proposes to add new definitions or revise existing 
definitions in Sec.  32.33 as follows:
     Child of an eligible public safety officer: The proposed 
rule would clarify that an individual found to be an eligible 
beneficiary under 42 U.S.C. 3796(a)(6) (i.e., a person who would be 
eligible for death benefits as a child but for his age), is not a child 
of an eligible public safety officer under subpart D, and thus not 
eligible for educational assistance under the provisions of 42 U.S.C. 
3796d-1 through 42 U.S.C. 3796d-7.
     Dependent: The proposed rule would eliminate this 
definition, as the Dale Long Act (sec. 1086 of Pub. L. 112-239) removed 
the term from the PSOB Act.
     Educational expenses: The proposed rule would revise this 
definition to provide that such expenses refers to out-of-pocket 
expenses incurred by a claimant or claimant's family. The proposed rule 
is intended to provide that PSOB education benefits are to reimburse 
claimants for those expenses actually incurred for tuition, fees, and 
that other expenses and are not available when an educational 
institution has waived or otherwise discounted tuition, fees, or the 
cost of other expenses for the claimant. The proposed rule provides 
that in such circumstances, BJA would calculate reimbursement based on 
the actual costs incurred, not the amount of tuition or

[[Page 57363]]

fees charged before a waiver or other discount is applied.
     Eligible dependent: The proposed rule would eliminate this 
definition as the Dale Long Act (sec. 1086 of Pub. L. 112-239) removed 
the term from the PSOB Act.
     Tax Year: The proposed rule would remove this definition 
as the Dale Long Act (sec. 1086 of Pub. L. 112-239) removed the term 
from the PSOB Act.

Section 32.34 PSOB Office Determination

    Consistent with proposed Sec.  32.5(o), which consolidates all 
abandonment provisions into a single paragraph, the proposed rule would 
remove paragraph (b), which prescribes abandonment provisions for 
disability claims. Consistent with revisions to the definitions in 
Sec.  32.33, the proposed rule would also remove references to 
``threshold claims.''

Section 32.41 Scope of Subpart

    The proposed rule would remove all references to Sec.  32.27 
consistent with the proposal to remove Sec. Sec.  32.27, 32.28, and 
32.29.

Section 32.42 Time for Filing Requests for Determination

    The proposed rule would remove all references to Sec.  32.27 
consistent with the proposal to remove Sec. Sec.  32.27, 32.28, and 
32.29.

Section 32.44 Hearing Officer Determination

    The proposed rule would, consistent with proposed Sec.  32.10, 
require that Hearing Officers seek legal advice from PSOB Counsel 
before determining a claim. Consistent with proposed Sec.  32.5(o), 
which consolidates all abandonment provisions into a single paragraph, 
the proposed rule would remove paragraph (c), which prescribes 
abandonment provisions for Hearing Officer determinations.

Section 32.45 Hearings

    The proposed rule would clarify that, at a hearing, Hearing 
Officers are the only individual permitted to examine or question a 
claimant, other than a claimant's own representative, if any. The 
purpose of the proposed this rule is to preserve the non-adversarial 
nature of the Hearing Officer determination and to make clear that a 
hearing is not for purposes of providing claimants with the opportunity 
to engage in trial-type discovery as to other claimants.

Section 32.54 Director Determination

    Consistent with proposed Sec.  32.5(o), which consolidates all 
abandonment provisions into a single paragraph, the proposed rule would 
remove paragraph (b), which prescribes abandonment provisions for 
Director determinations.

V. Regulatory Requirements

Executive Order 12866 and 13563--Regulatory Planning and Review

    This proposed rule has been drafted and reviewed in accordance with 
Executive Order 12866, ``Regulatory Planning and Review,'' section 
1(b), Principles of Regulation, and in accordance with Executive Order 
13563, ``Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' section 1(b), 
General Principles of Regulation. Although not an economically 
significant rulemaking under Executive Orders 12866 and 13563, the 
Office of Justice Programs has determined that this proposed rule is a 
``significant regulatory action'' under section 3(f) of the Executive 
Order, and accordingly this rule has been reviewed by the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB).
    Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 direct agencies to assess all 
costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if 
regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize 
net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public 
health and safety effects, distributive impacts, and equity). As 
explained below, the agency has assessed the costs and benefits of this 
proposed rule as required by Executive Order 12866 and has determined 
that the benefits of the proposed rule justify the costs.
A. Provisions That Define When an Individual Is a Firefighter
    Based on the number of claims received in the past involving 
similar situations and the circumstances of such claims, OJP estimates 
that the revised provisions could increase approvals by approximately 1 
claim per year. If all such claims were paid at the current rate, the 
annual PSOB Program death and disability benefit cost would be 
increased by $339,881. Based on amounts appropriated in FY2016 for PSOB 
Program death benefits (``such sums as necessary''--estimated at 
$71,323,000) and disability and education benefits ($16,300,000), the 
agency knows that it could pay the death claims from its current 
appropriations, and estimates that it could pay the disability claims 
from its current appropriations.
B. Provisions That Define When an Organization or Entity Is a Volunteer 
Fire Department
    Under existing law and regulations, BJA currently determines that 
certain volunteer fire departments qualify as public agencies, and, as 
a result, that qualified firefighters serving such agencies qualify as 
public safety officers. In addition, the proposed definition of 
``volunteer fire department'' does not expand the number or type of 
organizations that qualify as a public agency under the law but rather 
only codifies the agency's interpretation of the status of such 
organizations as a public agency based on existing provisions of law 
and regulations. As such, OJP estimates that there are no additional 
death or disability benefit costs associated with this provision.
C. Provisions Pertaining to the Filing of an Application for Benefits, 
That Define When an Individual Is a Public Safety Officer, When an 
Officer Has Sustained a Line of Duty Injury, an Officer Is Permanently 
and Total Disabled When Payment of Benefits Is Prohibited, When 
Individuals Are Ineligible for Payment, and Related Matters
    Based on the number of claims received in the past involving 
similar situations and the circumstances of such claims, OJP estimates 
that the revised provisions, taken together, could increase approvals 
by approximately 9 claims per year. If all 9 claims were paid at the 
current rate, the annual PSOB Program death and disability benefit cost 
would be increased by $3,058,929. Based on amounts appropriated in 
FY2016 for PSOB Program death benefits (``such sums as necessary''--
estimated at $71,323,000) and disability and education benefits 
($16,300,000), the agency knows that it could pay the death claims from 
its current appropriations, and estimates that it could pay the 
disability claims from its current appropriations.
D. Provisions Pertaining to the Admissibility, Sufficiency, Evaluation, 
and Disclosure of Evidence Submitted in PSOB Claims, and Related 
Matters
    The primary benefit of the proposed rules is that the revised 
requirements would reduce the burden on claimants to establish 
eligibility for benefits and provide a corresponding reduction in the 
agency's processing burden in gathering and evaluating such evidence. 
The agency estimates that this across-the-board reduction in burden for 
both claimants and the agency will translate into reduced processing 
time for claims,

[[Page 57364]]

more timely determinations, and improved delivery of benefits. In terms 
of benefit costs, the agency estimates that there will not be a 
significant increase in claims approved as compared to the previous 
regulatory criteria. Accordingly, the proposed rule does not 
significantly increase benefit costs.
E. Provisions Concerning the Fees That May Be Charged for 
Representation in PSOB Claims
    The primary benefit of the proposed rule is that it makes it easier 
for individuals seeking benefits to obtain qualified representation. In 
eliminating restrictions on the types of fee agreements permitted in 
representation for PSOB claims, eliminating the maximum hourly rate for 
representative's fees in favor of a percentage-based maximum limit, and 
establishing a presumption of reasonableness for fees below certain 
amounts, the agency believes that the proposed rules would encourage 
more attorneys to provide representation in PSOB claims. A secondary 
benefit of the proposed rules is that, in eliminating automatic review 
of all petitions for fees, the proposed rule will reduce agency burden 
and permit the agency to reallocate these resources to processing 
claims. These provisions have no impact on benefit costs.
F. Provisions Establishing When an Application for Benefits Is Complete 
and Will Be Accepted for Processing as a Claim
    The primary benefit of the proposed rule defining a ``complete 
application'' is that it will (1) provide clarity to applicants for 
benefits as to precisely what documents and information are required 
for the agency to begin processing the application as a claim, and (2) 
enable the agency to allocate its resources to those applications that 
are sufficiently complete to warrant a determination on the merits. A 
secondary benefit of the proposed rule is that, as the agency 
transitions further to an entirely paperless processing system, the 
proposed rule would facilitate processing by releasing for processing, 
with few exceptions, only complete applications. These provisions have 
no impact on benefit costs.
G. Provisions Establishing the Scope of Administrative Legal Review of 
PSOB Claims
    The primary benefit of the proposed rule is that it makes 
transparent the role of PSOB Counsel in the processing of claims. These 
provisions have no impact on benefit costs, and no impact on 
administrative or personnel costs.
H. Provisions Pertaining to Educational Assistance and Other Matters 
Necessary To Implement the Proposed Rule
    The primary benefit of the proposed rule is that it makes clear how 
educational expenses are calculated in the processing of such claims 
and implements recent amendments to the Act. These provisions have no 
impact on benefit costs.
I. Personnel and Training Costs for Agency Staff
    As PSOB claims and applications under the provisions of the 
proposed rule would be processed by existing staff, the agency would 
not incur additional personnel costs in processing these claims. OJP 
acknowledges that there would be some costs associated with training 
current staff; however, OJP estimates that such costs would be nominal 
as such training is ordinarily conducted in-house by existing legal and 
program staff and is scheduled and conducted to minimize disruptions to 
claims processing.
    This proposed rule would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal 
governments, or on the private sector.

Executive Order 13132--Federalism

    This proposed rule would not have substantial direct effects on the 
States, on the relationship between the federal government and the 
States, or on distribution of power and responsibilities among the 
various levels of government. The PSOB program statutes provide 
benefits to individuals and do not impose any special or unique 
requirements on States or localities. Therefore, in accordance with 
Executive Order No. 13132, it is determined that this proposed rule 
does not have sufficient federalism implications to warrant the 
preparation of a Federalism Assessment.

Executive Order 12988--Civil Justice Reform

    This proposed rule meets the applicable standards set forth in 
sections 3(a) & (b)(2) of Executive Order No. 12988. Pursuant to 
section 3(b)(1)(I) of the Executive Order, nothing in this proposed 
rule or any previous rule (or in any administrative policy, directive, 
ruling, notice, guideline, guidance, or writing) directly relating to 
the Program that is the subject of this rule is intended to create any 
legal or procedural rights enforceable against the United States, 
except as the same may be contained within part 32 of title 28 of the 
Code of Federal Regulations.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    This proposed rule would not have a significant economic impact on 
a substantial number of small entities for the following reasons: This 
proposed rule addresses federal agency procedures; furthermore, this 
proposed rule would make amendments to clarify existing regulations and 
agency practice concerning public safety officers' death, disability, 
and education benefits and would do nothing to increase the financial 
burden on any small entities. Therefore, an analysis of the impact of 
this proposed rule on such entities is not required under the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.).

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995

    This proposed rule would impose or modify reporting or 
recordkeeping requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). The PRA requires certain actions before 
an agency can adopt or revise a collection of information, including 
publishing a summary of the collection of information and a brief 
description of the need for and proposed use of the information. 44 
U.S.C. 3507.
    The proposed rule includes paperwork requirements in three 
collections of information previously approved by OMB for the PSOB 
Program. OJP published in the Federal Register on January 11, 2016, a 
60-day notice of ``Agency Information Collection Activities'' for each 
of the following forms: Claim for Death Benefits (OMB Number 1121-
0024), Report of Public Safety Officer's Death (OMB Number 1121-0025), 
and Public Safety Officers' Disability Benefits (OMB Number 1121-0166). 
In calculating the burden associated with these forms/collections, OJP 
reviewed its previous burden estimates and updated these to reflect the 
time required for claimants to gather the many different documents 
necessary to establish eligibility for these benefits, e.g., birth 
certificates, marriage certificates, divorce decrees (where 
applicable), public agency determinations as to death or disability 
benefits, medical records, etc. Information about the proposed 
collections is as follows:

Claim for Death Benefits--Overview of Information Collection

    1. Type of Information Collection: Reinstatement with change of a 
previously approved collection.
    2. The Title of the Form/Collection: Claim for Death Benefits.
    3. The agency form number, if any, and the applicable component of 
the

[[Page 57365]]

Department sponsoring the collection: Bureau of Justice Assistance, 
Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice.
    4. Affected public who will be asked or required to respond, as 
well as a brief abstract: Primary: Eligible survivors of fallen public 
safety officers.
    Abstract: BJA's Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) Office will 
use these Claim Form information to confirm the eligibility of 
applicants to receive Public Safety Officers' Death Benefits. 
Eligibility is dependent on several factors, including public safety 
officer status, an injury sustained in the line of duty, and the 
claimant status in the beneficiary hierarchy according to the PSOB Act. 
In addition, information to help the PSOB Office identify an individual 
is collected, such as Social Security numbers, telephone numbers, and 
email addresses. Changes to the claim form have been made in an effort 
to streamline the application process and eliminate requests for 
information that are either irrelevant or already being collected by 
other means.
    OJP estimates that no more than 350 respondents will apply each 
year. Each application takes approximately 120 minutes to complete. OJP 
estimates that the total public burden (in hours) associated with the 
collection can be calculated as follows: Total Annual Reporting Burden: 
350 x 120 minutes per application = 42,000 minutes/by 60 minutes per 
hour = 700 hours.

Public Safety Officer's Death--Overview of Information Collection

    1. Type of Information Collection: Reinstatement with change of a 
previously approved collection.
    2. The Title of the Form/Collection: Report of Public Safety 
Officer's Death.
    3. The agency form number, if any, and the applicable component of 
the Department sponsoring the collection: Bureau of Justice Assistance, 
Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice.
    4. Affected public who will be asked or required to respond, as 
well as a brief abstract: Primary: Public safety agencies experiencing 
the death of a public safety officer according to the PSOB Act.
    Abstract: BJA's Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) Office will 
use these Report of Public Safety Officer's Death Form information to 
confirm the eligibility of applicants to receive Public Safety 
Officers' Death Benefits. Eligibility is dependent on several factors, 
including public safety officer status, an injury sustained in the line 
of duty, and the claimant status in the beneficiary hierarchy according 
to these Act. In addition, information to help the PSOB Office identify 
an individual is collected, such as Social Security numbers, telephone 
numbers, and email addresses. Changes to the report form have been made 
in an effort to streamline the application process and eliminate 
requests for information that are either irrelevant or already being 
collected by other means.
    OJP estimates that no more than 350 respondents will apply each 
year. Each application takes approximately 240 minutes to complete. OJP 
estimates that the total public burden (in hours) associated with the 
collection can be calculated as follows: Total Annual Reporting Burden: 
350 x 240 minutes per application = 84,000 minutes/by 60 minutes per 
hour = 1,400 hours.

Public Safety Officers' Disability Benefits--Overview of Information 
Collection

    1. Type of Information Collection: Reinstatement with change of a 
previously approved collection.
    2. The Title of the Form/Collection: Public Safety Officer's 
Disability Benefits.
    3. The agency form number, if any, and the applicable component of 
the Department sponsoring the collection: Bureau of Justice Assistance, 
Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice.
    4. Affected public who will be asked or required to respond, as 
well as a brief abstract: Primary: Public safety officers who were 
permanently and totally disabled in the line of duty.
    Abstract: BJA's Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) Office will 
use the PSOB Disability Application information to confirm the 
eligibility of applicants to receive Public Safety Officers' Disability 
Benefits. Eligibility is dependent on several factors, including public 
safety officer status, injury sustained in the line of duty, and the 
total and permanent nature of the line of duty injury. In addition, 
information to help the PSOB Office identify individuals is collected, 
such as Social Security numbers, telephone numbers, and email 
addresses. Changes to the application form have been made in an effort 
to streamline the application process and eliminate requests for 
information that are either irrelevant or already being collected by 
other means.
    OJP estimates that no more than 100 respondents will apply each 
year. Each application takes approximately 300 minutes to complete. OJP 
estimates that the total public burden (in hours) associated with the 
collection can be calculated as follows: Total Annual Reporting Burden: 
100 x 300 minutes per application = 30,000 minutes/by 60 minutes per 
hour = 500 hours.

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995

    This proposed rule would not result in the expenditure by State, 
local, and tribal governments, in the aggregate, or by the private 
sector, of $100,000,000 or more in any one year, and it will not 
significantly or uniquely affect small governments. The PSOB program is 
a federal benefits program that provides benefits directly to 
qualifying individuals. Therefore, no actions were deemed necessary 
under the provisions of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995.

List of Subjects in 28 CFR Part 32

    Administrative practice and procedure, Claims, Disability benefits, 
Education, Emergency medical services, Firefighters, Law enforcement 
officers, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Rescue squad.

    Accordingly, for the reasons set forth in the preamble, part 32 of 
chapter I of title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations is proposed to 
be amended as follows:

PART 32--PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICERS' DEATH, DISABILITY, AND EDUCATIONAL 
ASSISTANCE BENEFITS CLAIMS

0
1. The authority citation for 28 CFR part 32 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 42 U.S.C. ch. 46, subch. XII; 42 U.S.C. 3782(a), 
3787, 3788, 3791(a), 3793(a)(4) & (b), 3795a, 3796c-1, 3796c-2; sec. 
1601, title XI, Pub. L. 90-351, 82 Stat. 239; secs. 4 through 6, 
Pub. L. 94-430, 90 Stat. 1348; secs. 1 and 2, Pub. L. 107-37, 115 
Stat. 219.
0
2. Amend Sec.  32.2 by redesignating paragraphs (e) and (f) as 
paragraphs (f) and (g), respectively, and adding new paragraphs (e) and 
(h) to read as follows:


Sec.  32.2  Computation of time; filing.

* * * * *
    (e) In determining whether an application, claim, or other document 
will be considered if filed after the time prescribed for such filing 
has passed, good cause for such filing (excluding a lack of knowledge 
about the PSOB Program) may be found if the individual acted with 
reasonable diligence after any circumstance contributing to the delay 
was removed, and the delay was attributable to--
    (1) Circumstances beyond the individual's control such as not 
having reached the age of majority, extended illness, or mental or 
physical incapacity;
    (2) Incorrect information provided by the public agency in which 
the public safety officer served, or another public

[[Page 57366]]

agency, related to the filing of a PSOB claim that the individual 
relied upon to his detriment;
    (3) A determination of the officer's (or survivor's) eligibility or 
entitlement to death or disability benefits by the officer's public 
agency or other public agency, made after the time for filing has 
passed; or
    (4) Other unavoidable circumstances demonstrating that the 
individual could not be reasonably expected to know about the time 
limits for filing an application or claim.
* * * * *
    (h) The Director may, after publishing a Notice in the Federal 
Register consistent with 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(1)(C), and providing 
reasonable notice through the PSOB Program Web site, require all 
applications, claims, and supporting materials to be filed in 
electronic or other form as the Director shall prescribe.
* * * * *
0
3. Amend Sec.  32.3 as follows:
0
a. Add the definitions of ``Agent'' and ``Attorney''.
0
b. In the definition of ``Authorized commuting'' add ``, including 
reasonable return travel'' after ``within his line of duty''.
0
c. Revise the definition of ``Child of a public safety officer''.
0
d. Remove the definition of ``Consequences of an injury that 
permanently prevent an individual from performing any gainful work''.
0
e. Revise the definitions of ``Department or agency'', 
``Determination'', ``Divorce'', ``Employee'', ``Firefighter'', ``Gross 
negligence'', ``Injury'', ``Injury date'', ``Involvement'', ``Line of 
duty activity or action'', and ``Line of duty injury''.
0
f. Add the definition of ``Medical probability.''
0
g. Revise the definitions of ``Official capacity'' and ``Officially 
recognized or designated public employee member of a squad or crew''.
0
h. Add the definition of ``On-site hazard management''.
0
i. Revise the definition of ``Parent-child relationship''.
0
j. Add the definition of ``PSOB Counsel''.
0
k. Remove the definitions of, and ``Public employee member of a squad 
or crew,'' and ``Stress or strain.''
0
l. Revise the definitions of ``Suppression of fire'' and ``Voluntary 
intoxication''.
0
m. Add the definition of ``Volunteer fire department''
    The revisions and additions read as follows:


Sec.  32.3  Definitions

* * * * *
    Agent means an individual who provides representative services to 
an individual seeking benefits under the Act and is not an attorney as 
provided in this part.
* * * * *
    Attorney means a member in good standing of a State bar.
* * * * *
    Child of a public safety officer means an individual--
    (1) Who meets the definition provided in the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 
3796b(3), and
    (2) With respect to whom the public safety officer's parental 
rights have not been terminated, as of the injury date.
* * * * *
    Department or agency--An entity is a department or agency within 
the meaning of the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3796b(8), and this part, only if 
the entity is--
    (1) A court;
    (2) An agency described in the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3796b(9)(B) or 
(C);
    (3) An entity created by interstate compact between two or more 
States or between a State or States and the District of Columbia with 
the consent (through consenting or enabling legislation, or similar 
mechanism) by the United States Congress; or
    (4) Otherwise a public entity--
    (i) That is legally an express part of the internal organizational 
structure of the relevant government;
    (ii) That has no legal existence independent of such government; 
and
    (iii) Whose obligations, acts, omissions, officers, and employees 
are legally those of such government.
* * * * *
    Determination means the approval or denial of a claim, the 
determination described in the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3796(c), or any 
recommendation under Sec.  32.54(c)(3).
* * * * *
    Divorce means a legally valid, i.e., court-ordered, dissolution of 
marriage.
* * * * *
    Employee does not include--
    (1) Any independent contractor;
    (2) Any individual who is not eligible to receive death or 
disability benefits from the purported employer on the same basis as a 
regular employee of such employer would; or
    (3) Any active duty member of the armed forces.
* * * * *
    Firefighter means (1) An individual who--
    (i) Is trained in--
    (A) Suppression of fire; or
    (B) Hazardous-material response; and
    (ii) Has the legal authority and responsibility to engage in the 
suppression of fire, as--
    (A) An employee of the public agency he serves, which legally 
recognizes him to have such (or, at a minimum, does not deny (or has 
not denied) him to have such); or
    (B) An individual otherwise included within the definition provided 
in the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3796b(4); or
    (2) An individual who is a participant in an official training 
program of the officer's public agency that is mandatory for that 
individual's employment or certification as a firefighter and such 
training program involves the suppression of fire or hazardous-material 
response.
* * * * *
    Gross negligence means a reckless departure from the ordinary care 
used by similarly situated public safety officers under circumstances 
where it is highly likely that serious harm will follow.
* * * * *
    Injury--(1) Injury means--
    (i) A traumatic physical wound or a traumatized condition of the 
body, or the increase in severity of such an existing wound or 
condition, directly and proximately caused by--
    (A) External force such as bullets or physical blows;
    (B) Exposure to external factors such as chemicals, electricity, 
climatic conditions, infectious disease, radiation, virus, or bacteria;
    (C) Heatstroke; or
    (D) Acute and immediate musculoskeletal strain or muscle damage 
such as a disc herniation or rhabdomyolysis,
    (ii) But does not include--
    (A) Any occupational disease;
    (B) Any chronic, cumulative, or progressive condition of the body;
    (C) Cardiovascular disease; or
    (D) Any mental health condition including post-traumatic stress 
disorder, depression, or anxiety.
    (2) With respect to claims based on a fatal heart attack, stroke, 
or vascular rupture, injury also means the presumption of personal 
injury established when the requirements of 42 U.S.C. 3796(k) are 
satisfied.
* * * * *
    Injury date--(1) In general, injury date means the time of the line 
of duty injury that--
    (i) Directly and proximately results in the public safety officer's 
death, with respect to a claim under--
    (A) Subpart B of this part; or
    (B) Subpart D of this part, by virtue of his death; or

[[Page 57367]]

    (ii) Directly (or directly and proximately) results in the public 
safety officer's total and permanent disability, with respect to a 
claim under--
    (A) Subpart C of this part; or
    (B) Subpart D of this part, by virtue of his disability.
    (2) With respect to claims under the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3796(k), 
injury date means the time of the public safety officer's qualifying 
engagement or participation referred to in the Act at 42 U.S.C. 
3796(k)(1).
* * * * *
    Involvement--An individual is involved in crime and juvenile 
delinquency control or reduction, or enforcement of the criminal laws 
(including juvenile delinquency), only if the individual is an officer, 
or in the case of an officer trainee, an employee, of a public agency 
and, in that capacity, is recognized by such agency, or the relevant 
government (or, at a minimum, not denied by such agency, or the 
relevant government) as having--
    (1) Legal authority to arrest, apprehend, prosecute, adjudicate, 
correct or detain (in a prison or other detention or confinement 
facility), or supervise (as a parole or probation officer), persons who 
are alleged or found to have violated the criminal laws, or
    (2) Legal authority to participate in an official training program 
of the officer's public agency that is mandatory for that individual's 
employment or certification as a police officer, corrections officer, 
probation officer, or their equivalent.
* * * * *
    Line of duty activity or action--Activity or an action is performed 
in the line of duty if it is not described in the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 
3796a(1), in the case of a public safety officer who is--
    (1) A law enforcement officer or firefighter--
    (i) Whose primary function (as applicable) is public safety 
activity, only if it is activity or an action that he is obligated or 
authorized by statute, rule, regulation, condition of employment or 
service, official mutual aid agreement, or other law, to perform 
(including any social, ceremonial, or athletic functions (or any 
official training programs of his public agency) to which he is 
assigned, or for which he is compensated), under the auspices of the 
public agency he serves, and such agency (or the relevant government) 
legally recognizes that activity or action to have been so obligated or 
authorized at the time performed (or, at a minimum, does not deny (or 
has not denied) it to have been such); or
    (ii) Whose primary function is not public safety activity, only 
if--
    (A) It is activity or an action that he is obligated or authorized 
by statute, rule, regulation, condition of employment or service, 
official mutual-aid agreement, or other law, to perform, under the 
auspices of the public agency he serves, and such agency (or the 
relevant government) legally recognizes that activity or action to have 
been so obligated or authorized at the time performed (or, at a 
minimum, does not deny (or has not denied) it to have been such); and
    (B) It is performed (as applicable) in the course of public safety 
activity (including emergency response activity the agency is 
authorized to perform), or taking part (as a trainer or trainee) in an 
official training program of his public agency for such activity 
(including participation as a trainee in an official training program 
of his public agency that is mandatory for that individual's employment 
or certification as a firefighter, police officer, corrections officer, 
probation officer, or equivalent), and such agency (or the relevant 
government) legally recognizes it to have been such at the time 
performed (or, at a minimum, does not deny (or has not denied) it to 
have been such); or
    (iii) Only if it constitutes public safety activity, is performed 
in the course of responding to an emergency situation that the officer 
did not create through his own actions, requires prompt decisions and 
action to save another human life, and is not contrary to the law of 
the jurisdiction in which performed;
    (2) A member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew, only if it is 
activity or an action that he is obligated or authorized by statute, 
rule, regulation, condition of employment or service, official mutual-
aid agreement, or other law, to perform, under the auspices of the 
public agency or nonprofit entity he serves, it is performed in the 
course of engaging in rescue activity or providing emergency medical 
services, and such agency (or the relevant government) or nonprofit 
entity legally recognizes it to have been such at the time performed 
(or, at a minimum, does not deny (or has not denied) it to have been 
such; or
    (3) A disaster relief worker, only if, it is disaster relief 
activity, and the agency he serves (or the relevant government), being 
described in the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3796b(9)(B) or (C), legally 
recognizes it to have been such at the time performed (or, at a 
minimum, does not deny (or has not denied) it to have been such); or
    (4) A chaplain, only if--
    (i) It is activity or an action that he is obligated or authorized 
by statute, rule, regulation, condition of employment or service, 
official mutual-aid agreement, or other law, to perform, under the 
auspices of the public agency he serves, and such agency (or the 
relevant government) legally recognizes it to have been such at the 
time performed (or, at a minimum, does not deny (or has not denied) it 
to have been such); and
    (ii) It is performed in the course of responding to a fire-, 
rescue-, or police emergency, and such agency (or the relevant 
government) legally recognizes it to have been such at the time 
performed (or, at a minimum, does not deny (or has not denied) it to 
have been such).
* * * * *
    Line of duty injury--An injury is sustained in the line of duty 
only if--
    (1) It is sustained in the course of--
    (i) Performance of line of duty activity or a line of duty action; 
or
    (ii) Authorized commuting; or
    (2) Such injury resulted from the injured party's status as a 
public safety officer, or was sustained in retaliation for line of duty 
actions taken by the officer or other public safety officers.
* * * * *
    Medical probability--A fact is indicated to a degree of medical 
probability, when, pursuant to a medical assessment, the fact is 
indicated by a preponderance of such evidence as may be available.
* * * * *
    Official capacity--An individual serves a public agency in an 
official capacity only if--
    (1) He is officially authorized, -recognized, or -designated (by 
such agency) as functionally within or -part of it, and
    (2) His acts and omissions, while so serving, are legally those of 
such agency, which legally recognizes them as such (or, at a minimum, 
does not deny (or has not denied) them to be such); or
    (3) His acts and omissions while responding to an emergency for 
purposes of saving human life constitute a line of duty action or 
activity as defined in this part.
* * * * *
    Officially recognized or designated employee or volunteer member of 
a rescue squad or ambulance crew means an employee or volunteer member 
of a rescue squad or ambulance crew who--
    (1) Is officially recognized (or officially designated) as such an 
employee or volunteer member, by the public agency or nonprofit entity 
serving the public under whose auspices the squad or crew operates, and
    (2) Is engaging in rescue activity or in the provision of emergency 
medical services as authorized or licensed by

[[Page 57368]]

law and by the applicable agency or entity.
* * * * *
    On-site hazard management means on-site hazard evaluation and 
providing scene security or directing traffic in response to any fire, 
rescue, or law enforcement emergency.
* * * * *
    Parent-child relationship means a relationship between a public 
safety officer and another individual, in which the officer has the 
role of parent (other than biological or legally-adoptive).
* * * * *
    PSOB Counsel means the legal staff within BJA that provides 
programmatic legal advice to PSOB determining officials and performs 
legal review of PSOB Program claims and related matters.
* * * * *
    Suppression of fire means extinguishment, physical prevention, 
containment of fire, and on-site hazard management.
* * * * *
    Voluntary intoxication at the time of death or catastrophic injury 
means the following, as shown by any commonly accepted tissue, -fluid, 
or -breath test or by other competent evidence:
    (1) With respect to alcohol,
    (i) In any claim arising from a public safety officer's death in 
which the death was simultaneous (or practically simultaneous) with the 
injury, it means intoxication as defined in the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 
3796b(5), unless convincing evidence demonstrates that the officer did 
not introduce the alcohol into his body intentionally; or
    (ii) In any claim in which a public safety officer's death occurred 
after the injury date, unless convincing evidence demonstrates that the 
officer did not introduce the alcohol into his body intentionally, it 
means intoxication--
    (A) As defined in the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3796b(5); and
    (B) As of the injury date; or
    (2) With respect to drugs or other substances, it means 
intoxication as defined in the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3796b(5), as evidenced 
by--
    (i) The officer acting in an intoxicated manner as of the injury 
date, unless convincing evidence demonstrates that the introduction of 
drugs or other substances was not an intentional act of the officer's; 
or
    (ii) The presence (as of the injury date) in the body of the public 
safety officer of drugs or substances included on Schedules I-III of 
the drug control and enforcement laws (see 21 U.S.C. 812(a)), unless 
convincing evidence demonstrates that--
    (A) The introduction of such drug or other substance was not an 
intentional act of the officer's, or
    (B) The drug or other substance would not produce intoxication in 
the amount present in the public safety officer's body.
* * * * *
    Volunteer fire department--a volunteer fire department is an 
instrumentality within the meaning of the Act at 42 U.S.C. 3796b(8) 
if--
    (1) It is legally established as a nonprofit entity serving the 
public,
    (2) It is legally established and operates solely for the purpose 
of providing fire protection and related services to or on behalf of a 
public agency or agencies, and
    (3) It provides fire protection and related services to the public 
without preference or subscription.
0
4. Amend Sec.  32.5 as follows:
0
a. Revise paragraph (a).
0
b. Remove paragraphs (c) and (d)(3).
0
c. Redesignate paragraph (b) as paragraph (c).
0
d. In paragraph (i) add ``and physically stressful'' after ``non-
routine''.
0
e. Add new paragraphs (b), (k), (l), and (m).
    The revision and additions read as follows:


Sec.  32.5  Evidence.

    (a) Except as otherwise may be expressly provided in the Act or 
this part, a claimant is responsible for establishing all issues of 
fact for the particular benefit sought by the standard of proof of 
``more likely than not.''
    (b) The evidence that a claimant produces, both circumstantial and 
direct, must be credible, probative, and substantial, and, when deemed 
necessary by a PSOB determining official, produced in original format 
or certified as a true and exact copy of a record by a custodian of 
such records or other person capable of verifying the authenticity of 
such records.
* * * * *
    (k) In instances where the determining official finds that there is 
a balance of positive and negative evidence for an issue material to 
the particular benefit sought, the PSOB determining official will 
resolve the point in favor of the payment of benefits. Such a finding 
of equivalence must be based on reason, logic, common sense, and the 
determining official's experience, and, under no circumstances, may a 
lack of evidence in support of a particular fact be understood to 
establish or create such equivalence.
    (l) A PSOB determining official may require from a claimant proof 
of birth, death, disability, earnings, education, employment, expenses, 
injury, relationship, marriage, or other information deemed necessary 
to establish eligibility for a benefit under the Act. A PSOB 
determining official may also require waivers, consents, or 
authorizations from claimants to obtain directly from third parties 
tax, medical, employment, or other information that the PSOB 
determining official deems relevant in determining the claimant's 
eligibility, and may request an opportunity to review original 
documents submitted in connection with the claim.
    (m) In the absence of reasonable excuse or justification, when 
evidence necessary to a determination on a claim that has been 
requested in writing in connection with a complete claim for benefits 
is not filed with the PSOB Office within one year of the date of such 
request, or a claimant has otherwise failed to pursue in a timely 
fashion a determination on his or her claim, the claim will be 
considered as abandoned, as though never filed. Not less than 33 days 
prior to the PSOB determining official finding the claim to be 
abandoned, the PSOB Office shall serve the claimant with notice of 
intent to deem the claim abandoned. In the event of abandonment, the 
time periods prescribed for filing an initial application for benefits 
or other filing deadline are neither tolled nor applicable. A claimant 
may reopen an abandoned claim within 180 days from the date of 
abandonment provided claimant files with the PSOB Office a complete 
claim, including any information previously requested but not provided. 
After a claim for benefits has been abandoned and a complete claim has 
not been filed with the PSOB Office in the time prescribed for 
reopening such claim, no further action on the claim will be taken by 
the agency.
0
5. Revise Sec.  32.7 to read as follows:


Sec.  32.7  Fees for representative services.

    (a) Only attorneys, as defined in this part, or an individual 
working under the direct supervision of an attorney and for whose 
conduct the attorney is responsible for under applicable Rules of 
Professional Conduct (e.g., a paralegal), may charge fees for 
representative services provided in connection with any claim. Fees 
sought for representative services provided in connection with any 
claim must be reasonable. Subject to paragraphs (e) and (f) of this 
section, fees may be based on a fixed fee, hourly rate, a percentage

[[Page 57369]]

of benefits recovered, or a combination of such bases. An authorization 
under paragraph (c) of this section shall be based on consideration of 
the following factors:
    (1) The nature of the services provided by the petitioner;
    (2) The complexity of the claim;
    (3) The level of skill and competence required to provide the 
petitioner's services;
    (4) The amount of time spent on the claim by the petitioner;
    (5) The level of administrative or judicial review to which the 
claim was pursued and the point at which the petitioner entered the 
proceedings;
    (6) The ordinary, usual, or customary fee charged by other persons 
(and by the petitioner) for services of a similar nature; and
    (b) Before submitting the petition described in paragraph (c) of 
this section, a person seeking to receive any amount of fees from a 
claimant for representative services provided in connection with any 
claim under the Act shall file with the PSOB Office a copy of the fee 
agreement.
    (c) To receive fees for representative services provided in 
connection with any claim, a representative shall petition the PSOB 
Office for authorization under this section. Such petition shall 
include--
    (1) An itemized description of the services;
    (2) The total amount sought to be received, from any source, as 
consideration for the services;
    (3) An itemized description of any representative or other services 
provided to (or on behalf of) the claimant in connection with other 
claims or causes of action, unrelated to the Act, before any public 
agency or non-public entity (including any insurer), arising from the 
public safety officer's death, disability, or injury;
    (4) The total amount requested, charged, received, or sought to be 
received, from any source, as consideration for the services described 
in paragraph (c)(3) of this section;
    (5) A statement of whether the petitioner has legal training or is 
licensed to practice law, and a description of any special 
qualifications possessed by the petitioner (other than legal training 
or a license to practice law) that increased the value of his services 
to (or on behalf of) the claimant;
    (6) A certification that the claimant was provided, simultaneously 
with the filing of the petition, with--
    (i) A copy of the petition; and
    (ii) A letter advising the claimant that he could file his comments 
on the petition, if any, with the PSOB Office, within thirty-three days 
of the date of that letter; and
    (7) A copy of the letter described in paragraph (c)(6)(ii) of this 
section.
    (d) Unless, for good cause shown, the Director extends the time for 
filing, no petition under paragraph (a) of this section shall be 
considered if the petition is filed with the PSOB Office later than one 
year after the date of the final agency determination of the claim.
    (e) No amount shall be authorized under this section for--
    (1) Fees in excess of 12 percent of the total death or disability 
benefit payment available to a claimant regardless of how the fee 
agreement is structured; or
    (2) Services provided in connection with--
    (i) Obtaining or providing evidence or information previously 
obtained by the PSOB determining official;
    (ii) Preparing the petition; or
    (iii) Explaining or delivering an approved claim to the claimant.
    (f) Fees otherwise qualifying under this section shall be presumed 
reasonable--
    (1) In a claim determined by the PSOB Office that does not exceed 8 
percent of the total death or disability benefit payment available to a 
claimant, or
    (2) In a claim determined by the Hearing Officer or Director that 
does not exceed 10 percent of the total death or disability benefit 
payment available to a claimant.
    (g) The presumptions in paragraph (f) of this section may be 
rebutted through an examination of the factors in paragraph (a) of this 
section establishing by clear and convincing evidence that the fee is 
unreasonable.
    (h) Upon its authorizing or not authorizing the payment of any 
amount under paragraph (a) of this section, the PSOB Office shall serve 
notice of the same upon the claimant and the petitioner. Such notice 
shall specify the amount, if any, the petitioner is authorized to 
charge the claimant and the basis of the authorization.
    (i) No agreement for representative services in connection with a 
claim shall be valid if the agreement provides for any consideration 
other than under this section. A person's receipt of consideration for 
such services other than under this section may, among other things, be 
the subject of referral by BJA to appropriate professional, 
administrative, disciplinary, or other legal authorities.
0
6. Add Sec.  32.9 to read as follows:


Sec.  32.9  Complete applications.

    (a) Before an application for benefits under the Act will be 
processed as a claim, i.e., assigned a claim number by the PSOB Office, 
determined by the PSOB Office, and reviewed for legal sufficiency, such 
application must be ``complete'' as provided in this section.
    (b) Except as indicated in paragraph (d) of this section, an 
application for death benefits or disability benefits shall constitute 
a complete application only if all of the basic required documents 
identified on the ``PSOB Checklist of Required Documents for Filing a 
PSOB Death [or Disability, as appropriate] Benefits Claim,'' available 
at the PSOB Program Web site, are filed with the PSOB Office.
    (c) If an applicant files with the PSOB Office an application for 
benefits that, pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section, is not 
complete, the PSOB Office will serve the applicant with written notice 
of the information necessary to complete the application and defer any 
further processing of the application and consideration as a claim 
until such Office receives all of the information described in 
paragraph (b).
    (d) An applicant's inability to file evidence as a result of a 
refusal by a public agency in which the officer served to provide the 
information identified in this section (or the public agency's 
demonstrated inability to provide such information) shall not render an 
application incomplete if the applicant provides to the PSOB Office 
evidence demonstrating that such inability to file basic required 
documents is not due to any fault of the applicant.
0
7. Add Sec.  32.10 to read as follows:


Sec.  32.10  PSOB Counsel.

    (a) Before determining a claim for benefits under the Act, PSOB 
determining officials shall seek legal advice from PSOB Counsel.
    (b) Legal advice provided by PSOB Counsel to PSOB determining 
officials shall be limited to the interpretation and application of the 
PSOB Act and implementing regulations and law and regulations 
referenced in or having direct application to the PSOB Act or its 
implementing regulations.
    (c) Unless otherwise ordered by the Assistant Attorney General for 
the Office of Justice Programs, the scope of PSOB Counsel's legal 
advice shall not include the review of findings of fact made by PSOB 
determining officials.
0
8. Revise Sec.  32.12 as follows:


Sec.  32.12  Time for filing claim.

    (a) Unless, for good cause shown, as defined in Sec.  32.2(e) of 
this part, the Director extends the time for filing, no application 
shall be considered if it is filed with the PSOB Office more than

[[Page 57370]]

three years after the public safety officer's death.
    (b) An applicant may file with the PSOB Office such supporting 
documentary, electronic, video, or other nonphysical evidence and legal 
arguments as he may wish to provide.
0
9. Amend Sec.  32.13 as follows:
0
a. Revise the definition of ``Beneficiary of a life insurance policy of 
a public safety officer''.
0
b. Remove from the definition of ``child-parent relationship'' the 
phrase ``, as shown by convincing evidence''.
0
c. Revise the definition of ``Engagement in a situation involving law 
enforcement, fire suppression, rescue, hazardous material response, 
emergency medical services, prison security, disaster relief, or other 
emergency response activity''.
0
d. Remove the definition of ``Medical probability''.
0
e. Revise the definitions of ``Nonroutine strenuous physical activity'' 
and ``Nonroutine stressful physical activity''.
    The revisions read as follows:


Sec.  32.13  Definitions.

* * * * *
    Beneficiary of a life insurance policy of a public safety officer--
An individual (living or deceased on the date of death of the public 
safety officer) is designated as beneficiary of a life insurance policy 
of such officer as of such date, only if the designation is, as of such 
date, legal and valid (as a designation of beneficiary of a life 
insurance policy) and unrevoked (by such officer or by operation of 
law) or otherwise unterminated, except that--
    (1) Any designation of an individual (including any designation of 
the biological or adoptive offspring of such individual) made in 
contemplation of such individual's marriage (or purported marriage) to 
such officer shall be considered to be revoked by such officer as of 
such date of death if the marriage (or purported marriage) did not take 
place, unless preponderant evidence demonstrates that--
    (i) It did not take place for reasons other than personal 
differences between the officer and the individual; or
    (ii) No such revocation was intended by the officer;
    (2) Any designation of a spouse (or purported spouse) made in 
contemplation of or during such spouse's (or purported spouse's) 
marriage (or purported marriage) to such officer (including any 
designation of the biological or adoptive offspring of such spouse (or 
purported spouse)) shall be considered to be revoked by such officer as 
of such date of death if the spouse (or purported spouse) is divorced 
from such officer after the date of designation and before such date of 
death, unless preponderant evidence demonstrates that no such 
revocation was intended by the officer, and.
    (3) Any designation of an individual, who was living on the date of 
the officer's death, but who dies before a determination of PSOB death 
benefits, shall be considered to be revoked by such officer on the date 
of the officer's death in favor of the officer's living contingent 
beneficiary or beneficiaries, if any.
* * * * *
    Engagement in a situation involving law enforcement, fire 
suppression, rescue, hazardous material response, emergency medical 
services, prison security, disaster relief, or other emergency response 
activity--A public safety officer is so engaged only when, within his 
line of duty--
    (1) He is in the course of actually--
    (i) Engaging in law enforcement;
    (ii) Suppressing fire;
    (iii) Responding to a hazardous-material emergency;
    (iv) Performing rescue activity;
    (v) Providing emergency medical services;
    (vi) Performing disaster relief activity;
    (vii) Otherwise engaging in emergency response activity; or
    (viii) Performing a line of duty activity or action, that had it 
not been performed immediately, would have rendered the public agency 
unable to perform the activities in paragraphs (1)(i) through (vii) of 
this section; and
    (2) The public agency he serves (or the relevant government) 
legally recognizes him to have been in such course at the time of such 
engagement or activity (or, at a minimum, does not deny (or has not 
denied) him so to have been).
* * * * *
    Nonroutine strenuous physical activity means line of duty activity 
that--
    (1) Is not excluded by the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3796(l);
    (2) Is not performed as a matter of routine; and
    (3) Entails a vigorous level of physical exertion.
    Nonroutine stressful physical activity means line of duty activity 
that--
    (1) Is not excluded by the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3796(l);
    (2) Is not performed as a matter of routine;
    (3) Entails non-negligible physical exertion; and
    (4) Occurs--
    (i) With respect to a situation in which a public safety officer is 
engaged, under circumstances that objectively and reasonably--
    (A) Pose (or appear to pose) dangers, threats, or hazards (or 
reasonably-foreseeable risks thereof), not faced by similarly-situated 
members of the public in the ordinary course; and
    (B) Provoke, cause, or occasion unusual alarm, fear, or anxiety; or
    (ii) With respect to a training exercise in which a public safety 
officer participates, under circumstances that objectively and 
reasonably--
    (A) Simulate in realistic fashion situations that pose dangers, 
threats, or hazards; and
    (B) Provoke, cause, or occasion unusual alarm, fear, or anxiety.
* * * * *
0
10. Revise Sec.  32.14 to read as follows:


Sec.  32.14  PSOB Office determination.

    Upon its approving or denying a claim, the PSOB Office shall serve 
notice of the same upon the claimant (and upon any other claimant who 
may have filed a claim with respect to the same public safety officer). 
In the event of a denial, such notice shall--
    (a) Specify the factual findings and legal conclusions that support 
it; and
    (b) Provide information as to requesting a Hearing Officer 
determination.


Sec.  32.15   [Removed]

0
11. Remove Sec.  32.15.


Sec.  32,16   [Redesignated as Sec.  32.15]

0
12. Redesignate Sec.  32.16 as Sec.  32.15 and revise newly 
redesignated Sec.  32.15 to read as follows:


Sec.  32.15  Payment.

    (a) For purposes of determining who qualifies as a parent under 42 
U.S.C. 3796(a)(5), any biological or legally-adoptive parent whose 
parental rights have not been terminated as of the injury date shall be 
presumed rebuttably to be one. If evidence demonstrates that additional 
individuals also qualify as the parent of a public safety officer, such 
payment shall be made in equal shares.
    (b) Any amount payable with respect to a minor or incompetent shall 
be paid to his legal guardian, to be expended solely for the benefit of 
such minor or incompetent.
    (c) If more than one individual should qualify for payment--
    (1) Under the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3796(a)(4)(i), payment shall be 
made to each of them in equal shares, except that, if the designation 
itself should manifest a different distribution, payment shall be made 
to each of them in shares in accordance with such distribution; or

[[Page 57371]]

    (2) Under the Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3796(a)(4)(ii), payment shall be 
made to each of them in equal shares.
    (d) In determining whether an eligible survivor exists under 42 
U.S.C. 3796(a)(2), (4), (5), or (6) such that payment must be divided 
amongst such survivors, the PSOB determining official shall consider 
any person (other than as defined in 42 U.S.C. 3796b(3)(C)) not to have 
survived the public safety officer and thus ineligible, who, being 18 
years of age or older at the date of the officer's fatal injury, has 
not filed an application for benefits under 42 U.S.C. 3796(a) within 
the time prescribed in this part.


Sec.  32.17   [Redesignated as Sec.  32.16]

0
13. Redesignate Sec.  32.17 as Sec.  32.16.
0
14. Revise Sec.  32.22 to read as follows:


Sec.  32.22  Time for filing claim.

    (a) Unless, for good cause shown, as defined in Sec.  32.2(e) of 
this part, the Director extends the time for filing, no application 
shall be considered if it is filed with the PSOB Office more than three 
years after the injury date.
    (b) An applicant may file with the PSOB Office such supporting 
documentary, electronic, video, or other nonphysical evidence and legal 
arguments as he may wish to provide.
0
15. Amend 32.23 as follows:
0
a. Revise the definition of ``Gainful work''.
0
b. Remove the definition of ``Medical certainty''.
0
c. Amend the definition of ``Permanently disabled'' and ``Totally 
disabled'' by removing in the introductory sentence ``certainty'' and 
adding in its place ``probability''.
    The revision to read as follows:


Sec.  32.23  Definitions.

* * * * *
    Gainful work means work activity that is both substantial and 
gainful.
    (1) Substantial work activity means work activity that involves 
doing significant physical or mental activities such as work that 
requires a claimant to use his or her experience, skills, supervision, 
or contribute substantially to the operation of a business. Evidence 
that work activity may not be substantial includes--
    (i) Work involving ordinary or simple tasks that a claimant cannot 
perform without more supervision or assistance than is usually given 
other people doing similar work,
    (ii) Work involving minimal duties that make little or no demands 
on a claimant and that are of little or no monetary value to an 
employer;
    (iii) Work performed under special conditions take into account a 
claimant's impairment such as work done in a sheltered workshop; and
    (iv) Work offered despite a claimant's impairment because of family 
relationship, a past association with claimant's employer or other 
organization to which the claimant was affiliated with, or an 
employer's or affiliated organization's concern for claimant's welfare.
    (2) Gainful work activity means full- or part-time work activity 
that actually is compensated or is commonly compensated, but 
compensation does not include reimbursement of incidental expenses such 
as parking, transportation, and meals, or de minimis compensation.
* * * * *
0
16. Revise Sec.  32.24 to read as follows:


Sec.  32.24  PSOB Office determination.

    Upon its approving or denying a claim, the PSOB Office shall serve 
notice of the same upon the claimant. In the event of a denial, such 
notice shall--
    (a) Specify the factual findings and legal conclusions that support 
it; and
    (b) Provide information as to requesting a Hearing Officer 
determination.


Sec.  32.25   [Removed]

0
17. Remove Sec.  32.25.


Sec.  32.26   [Redesignated as Sec.  32.25]

0
18. Redesignate Sec.  32.26 as Sec.  32.25.


Sec. Sec.  32.27 and 32.28   [Removed]

0
19. Remove Sec. Sec.  32.27 and 28.


Sec.  32.29   [Redesignated as Sec.  32.26]

0
20. Redesignate Sec.  32.29 as Sec.  32.26 and revise newly 
redesignated Sec.  32.26 to read as follows:


Sec.  32.26  Request for Hearing Officer determination.

    In order to exhaust his administrative remedies, a claimant seeking 
relief from the denial of his claim shall request a Hearing Officer 
determination under subpart E of this part. Consistent with Sec.  32.8, 
any denial that is not the subject of such a request shall constitute 
the final agency determination.
0
21. Amend Sec.  32.33 as follows:
0
a. Revise the definition of ``Child of an eligible public safety 
officer''.
0
b. Remove the definition of ``Dependent''.
0
c. Revise the definition of ``Educational expenses''.
0
d. Remove the definitions of ``Eligible dependent'', and ``Tax year''.
    The revisions read as follows:


Sec.  32.33  Definitions.

* * * * *
    Child of an eligible public safety officer means the child of a 
public safety officer, which officer is an eligible public safety 
officer, but does not include any individual described in 42 U.S.C. 
3796(a)(6).
* * * * *
    Educational expenses means out-of-pocket expenses actually incurred 
by the claimant or claimant's family and excludes expenses not incurred 
by reason of a waiver, scholarship, grant, or equivalent reduction for 
such of the following as may be in furtherance of the educational, 
professional, or vocational objective of the program of education that 
forms the basis of a financial claim:
    (1) Tuition and fees, as described in 20 U.S.C. 1087ll(1) (higher 
education assistance);
    (2) Reasonable expenses for--
    (i) Room and board (if incurred for attendance on at least a half-
time basis);
    (ii) Books;
    (iii) Computer equipment;
    (iv) Supplies;
    (v) Transportation; and
    (3) For attendance on at least a three-quarter-time basis, a 
standard allowance for miscellaneous personal expenses that is the 
greater of--
    (i) The allowance for such expenses, as established by the eligible 
educational institution for purposes of financial aid; or
    (ii) $200.00 per month.
* * * * *
0
22. Revise Sec.  32.34 to read as follows:


Sec.  32.34  PSOB Office determination.

    In the event of the PSOB Office's denying a claim, the notice it 
serves upon the claimant shall--
    (a) Specify the factual findings and legal conclusions that support 
the denial; and
    (b) Provide information as to requesting a Hearing Officer 
determination.
0
23. Revise Sec.  32.41 to read as follows:


Sec.  32.41  Scope of subpart.

    Consistent with Sec.  32.1, this subpart contains provisions 
applicable to requests for Hearing Officer determination of claims 
denied under subpart B, C, or D of this part, and of claims remanded 
(or matters referred) under Sec.  32.54(c).
0
24. Revise Sec.  32.42 to read as follows:


Sec.  32.42  Time for filing request for determination.

    (a) Unless, for good cause shown, as defined in Sec.  32.2(e) of 
this part, the Director extends the time for filing, no claim shall be 
determined if the request therefor is filed with the PSOB Office

[[Page 57372]]

later than thirty-three days after the service of notice of the denial 
(under subpart B, C, or D of this part) of a claim.
    (b) A claimant may file with his request for a Hearing Officer 
determination such supporting documentary, electronic, video, or other 
non-physical evidence and legal arguments as he may wish to provide.
0
25. Revise Sec.  32.44 to read as follows:


Sec.  32.44  Hearing Officer determination.

    (a) Before determining a claim, the Hearing Officer shall seek 
legal advice from PSOB Counsel.
    (b) Upon his determining a claim, the Hearing Officer shall file a 
notice of the same simultaneously with the Director (for his review 
under subpart F of this part in the event of approval), the PSOB 
Office, which notice shall specify the factual findings and legal 
conclusions that support it, and PSOB Counsel.
    (c) Upon a Hearing Officer's denying a claim, the PSOB Office shall 
serve notice of the same upon the claimant (and upon any other claimant 
who may have filed a claim with respect to the same public safety 
officer), which notice shall--
    (1) Specify the Hearing Officer's factual findings and legal 
conclusions that support it; and
    (2) Provide information as to Director appeals.
0
26. Amend Sec.  32.45 as follows:
0
a. In paragraph (d)(1) remove ``and'' after ``cumulative evidence:''.
0
b. In paragraph (d)(2), remove the period after ``witnesses'' and add 
in its place ``; and''.
0
c. Add paragraph (d)(3)
    The addition reads as follows:


Sec.  32.45  Hearings

* * * * *
    (d) * * *
    (3) Shall be the only individual permitted to examine or question a 
claimant apart from that claimant's representative, if any.
* * * * *


Sec.  32.54  [Amended]

0
27. Amend Sec.  32.54 by removing paragraph (b) and redesignating 
paragraph (c) as paragraph (b).

    Dated: August 2, 2016.
Karol V. Mason,
Assistant Attorney General.
[FR Doc. 2016-18811 Filed 8-19-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE P