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

May 5, 2003

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

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

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Aerial Firefighter Relief Act of 2003'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:

(1) Pilots and crew members of aircraft used to fight wildfires generally work on a contract basis with a State or Federal agency and, as a result, are not eligible for death or disability benefits should they be killed or injured in the line of duty.

(2) Employer death benefits and life insurance for aerial firefighters are expensive, and a family of an aerial firefighter who dies in the line of duty has to cope not only with the loss of a loved one, but also the additional financial loss of a wage earner.

(3) It is vital that Congress continue to encourage the recruitment and retention of skilled and experienced aerial firefighters.

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

(a) IN GENERAL- Section 1204(7) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796b(7)) is amended--

(1) in subparagraph (B) by striking `or' at the end;

(2) in subparagraph (C) by striking the period at the end and inserting `; or'; and

(3) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:

`(D) an individual serving a public agency, or a contractor or subcontractor at any tier of a public agency, in an official capacity, with or without compensation, as a pilot or a crew member of an aircraft carrying out a firefighting mission on behalf of such public agency, if the injury involved occurs during the period beginning with the moment in which the aircraft first moves under its own power for the purpose of flight and ending with the moment in which the aircraft comes to rest after landing.'.

(b) APPLICABILITY- The amendments made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to injuries occurring on or after September 29, 1976.

END