Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. H.R. 4018, the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Improvements Act, appropriately expands the scope of this important program to better assist our public safety officers and their families. The PSOB program has been an important means of supporting our public safety officers since 1976, when the authorizing legislation was enacted. Initially, the program provided death benefits for certain officers, but it has since been expanded to apply to a wide range of those who protect us to now include Federal, State and local police officers, firefighters, public rescue squads, ambulance crews, and chaplains of those agencies. The PSOB program currently provides death benefits in the form of a onetime financial payment to the eligible survivors of public safety officers whose deaths are the direct and proximate result of a personal injury sustained in the line of duty. The program also provides financial assistance to help pay higher education costs for the spouses and children of public safety officers for whom PSOB death or disability benefits have been paid. This bill extends the coverage of the program to members of nonprofit rescue squads and ambulance crews who suffer fatal or catastrophic injury as a result of their performances of certain specified public safety activities within their specific lines of duty.…”