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Department of
Justice Implements Plan to Enact Hometown Heroes
Survivors
Benefit
Act
The Department of
Justice unveiled a new strategy to streamline
the claim review process and address the backlog
issue related to the Hometown Heroes Survivor
Benefits Act at a recent hearing of the Senate
Judiciary Committee.
The Hometown Heroes
Act of 2003 states that the families of public
safety officers who suffer a fatal heart attack
or stroke while in the line of duty may qualify
for survivor benefits under the Public Safety
Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Program.
Families of three
fallen firefighters testified at the hearing,
detailing the difficulties they faced in
attempting to claim survivor benefits from the
Department of Justice (DOJ). The result: two
denied claims, one pending claim and a combined
five years of delay.
In a statement
issued at the hearing, Domingo Herraiz, Director
of the Bureau of Justice Assistance which
administers the PSOB program, vowed, “We have
taken and will continue to take steps to
decrease the time it takes for survivors to be
given an answer on their claims.” Those steps
include additional PSOB staff, a case management
system that enables claimants to track the
status of their case, outreach to public safety
agencies and—most importantly—a plan to expedite
the claims process.
As of October 4th,
DOJ reported 202 pending cases, 21 approvals, 57
denials and 26 appeals. The department has been
criticized for major delays in processing claims
and for rulings that, in the words of Herraiz,
are “too restrictive.”
Senator Patrick
Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, stated that the DOJ is “delaying
implementation of the law and disregarding the
clear will of Congress to grant surviving
families death benefits in a timely, fair
manner.”
Herraiz recently
addressed the semi-annual meeting of CFSI’s
National Advisory Committee regarding the issue.
“I am not pleased with our progress over the
last year,” stated Herraiz, who admits that the
claim review process has taken longer than
expected. “It’s time for me to accept
responsibility. I can take charge of my
organization and I will fix it,” he promises.
The department
states that the initial backlog is the result of
a complete revision of PSOB regulations
following the implementation of the Hometown
Heroes Act. The regulations were finalized in
September of last year. DOJ maintains that most
claims currently under review are waiting to
receive additional evidence from the agency for
which the public safety officer worked, causing
additional delay.
Herraiz calls the
internal issues at the DOJ a long-standing
problem—one that he plans to resolve. “You will
see a big change. In three months, I guarantee a
difference with the Hometown Heroes claims. We
can do better and we will do better.”
In an attempt to
enact these changes, DOJ released two policy
memorandums relating to the processing of
survivor benefit claims. The memos, signed
by Director Herraiz, clarify the definitions of
two terms contained in the Hometown Heroes
Survivors Benefit Act of 2003.
The Hometown Heroes
Act, which was unanimously passed by both houses
of Congress and signed into law by President
Bush in December of 2003, stated:
“if a public
safety officer dies as the direct and
proximate result of a heart attack or
stroke, that officer shall be presumed to
have died as the direct and proximate result
of a personal injury sustained in the line
of duty, if--
(1) that
officer, while on duty--
`(A) engaged in a situation, and such
engagement involved
nonroutine stressful or strenuous
physical law
enforcement, fire suppression, rescue,
hazardous material response, emergency
medical services, prison security,
disaster relief, or other emergency
response activity; or
`(B) participated in a training
exercise, and such participation
involved
nonroutine stressful or strenuous
physical activity…
(3) such presumption is not overcome by
competent medical evidence to the
contrary.
The manner in which
DOJ was defining the term “nonroutine stressful
or strenuous physical activity” has caused some
concern among survivors and the public safety
community at large. In several cases, DOJ
has denied benefits to the survivors of public
safety officers who have died in the line of
duty from a heart attack or stroke based at
least in part on the assumption that the
emergency activities the officers were
undertaking were “routine” for a public safety
officer.
“I believe it is
safe to say that any firefighter or law
enforcement officer will tell you no emergency
situation is ever ‘routine,’” stated Bill Webb,
Executive Director of the Congressional Fire
Services Institute. “Our nation’s public
safety officers put their lives on the line
every day. A situation which they may
encounter on a regular basis can quickly
escalate into a catastrophic situation.
While the men and women of our nation’s fire
service are often prepared for almost any
situation, the stress involved in their jobs is
anything but routine and can take an enormous
toll both physically and mentally.”
The new DOJ policy
memorandum clarifies the meaning of the term “nonroutine
stressful or strenuous activity” and
specifically states that “Responding to an
emergency call shall presumptively be treated as
non-routine.”
Many survivors have
also expressed concern over how DOJ has
implemented the phrase “competent medical
evidence to the contrary” in past decisions.
The Department has often asked for as much as
ten years of medical records and some survivors
have reported infinite requests for more medical
records from DOJ staff. The new policy
memorandum clarifies that medical records shall
only be requested if the information provided in
the claim file suggests factors outside of the
line of duty may be responsible for the heart
attack or stroke. The memo further
clarifies that “medical-history records
requested of the claimant will be reviewed for
mitigating evidence in favor of the claim.”
“While we believe
this a positive development in resolving this
issue, there is still more work to be done,”
said Mr. Webb. “It is now up to DOJ to
implement the new policy and to make it work.
Too many families have been left out in the cold
waiting for DOJ to do what Congress unanimously
intended for them to do. It is imperative
that fire service continue to monitor the
situation to make sure the families of our
public safety officers are treated fairly and
their claims are processed efficiently and as
Congress intended.”
USFA Announces Application Period Open for
Fiscal Year 2007 Fire Prevention and Safety
Grants
On Thursday,
October 18th, the United States Fire
Administration (USFA) announced the application
period for the Fiscal Year 2007 Fire Prevention
and Safety Grants would open on Monday, October
22nd. USFA released the following
statement:
“The Department
of Homeland Security recently posted the
FY07 Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S)
Grants Program Guidance on the Assistance to
Firefighters Grants (AFG) Program Website.
The application period is scheduled to begin
on October 22, 2007, at 8:00 a.m. Eastern
Daylight Time (EDT). Applications for
these grants must be received by November
30, 2007, at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time).
FP&S grants support projects that enhance
the safety of the public and firefighters
from fire and related hazards. The primary
goal is to target high-risk populations,
firefighter safety and mitigate high
incidences of death and injury. Examples of
the types of projects supported by FP&S
include fire prevention and public safety
education campaigns, juvenile fire setter
interventions, media campaigns, and arson
prevention and awareness programs.
The applicant
tutorial is available through the
www.firegrantsupport.com Website.
The tutorial will provide you with valuable
grant information and will walk you through
the preparation and submittal of competitive
applications. In addition, the
applicant tutorial will provide an overview
of the funding priorities and evaluation
criteria. Applicants who have
questions regarding the Fire Prevention and
Safety Grants opportunity should contact the
help desk as soon as possible at
1-866-274-0960 or at
firegrants@dhs.gov. During the
application period, the help desk will
operate Monday to Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to
4:30 p.m. (Eastern Time), but is prepared to
revise hours of operation based on volume,
demand, holidays and urgency to complete the
FP&S Grants application period and
processing for FY07.
The AFG Program
is administered by the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) Federal Emergency
Management Agency’s (FEMA) Grants Program
Directorate in coordination with the U.S.
Fire Administration.
FY07 Fire
Prevention and Safety Grants Program
Guidance – visit
www.firegrantsupport.com/fps/guidance/
FY07 Fire
Prevention and Safety Grants FAQs – visit
www.firegrantsupport.com/fps/faq/07/.”
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