HARTFORD- State Rep. Charles Ferraro (R-117) & Pam Staneski (R-119) strongly supported bipartisan legislation to help current and former uniformed members of paid and volunteer fire departments in the House of Representatives last night. Firefighters who suffer from certain cancers as a result of performing their jobs will now be eligible to receive wage replacement benefits.
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“This is an excellent example of how the legislature can work collaboratively and reach across the party aisle to pass good legislation for our state firefighters. Democrats, Republicans, leaders and representatives from small towns and big cities along with the firefighters union came together to make sure firefighters with certain cancers receive benefits. This benefit will be at no cost to the municipalities,” said Rep. Ferraro in a press release.
Rep. Staneski said, “Firefighters put their lives on the line to protect us, and we need to recognize that our great state would not be the same without our career and volunteer firefighters.”
The bill diverts $.01 (cent) from the current e911 fee on phone bills and directs those funds to a new ‘Firefighters Cancer Relief Account’. The account will be managed by the Connecticut State Firefighters Association through a new Cancer Relief Subcommittee.
According to the legislation, the account funds are to be used solely for the purposes of providing wage replacement benefits to eligible firefighter cancer victims and to pay administrative costs. The benefits do not begin until July 1st 2019, permitting the account sufficient time to accumulate funds and the benefits can only continue for up to 2 years and payments are limited to what is actually in the fund.
Firefighters Cancer Relief Program would be available to the uniformed members of paid municipal, state, or volunteer fire department, local fire marshal, deputy fire marshals, fire investigators and fire inspectors.
The Firefighters Cancer Relief Program, under the new law, would provide the wage replacement benefits, for eligible firefighter cancer victims.
There are also expanded reporting requirements to include additional information on who was actually present at a fire and who was exposed, as well as the duration of the exposure.
After being unanimously passed by the House, the bill now awaits further action in the Senate.