Brothers & Sisters:
Your (as well as your friends ‘ and family members’) immediate help is needed.
Every Firefighter knows a Firefighter with cancer. Your immediate action helps them, their families, and may help you and your family in the future….keep reading:
The PSOB program provides benefits to the survivors of public safety officers who die in the line of duty, as well as disability benefits to officers who become permanently disabled due to injuries sustained in the line of duty. The legislation was included as part of the Senate-passed annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The House and Senate are now resolving differences between the two chambers’ versions of the NDAA, and IAFF, NFFF, and other national fire service organizations are advocating for the inclusion of S. 237.
A QUICK BUT IMPORTANT REQUEST:
Please reach out to your members of Congress today (access and sample message below) and ask them to support the inclusion of the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act in the final version of the NDAA. This is critical legislation that will help support the families of our nation’s firefighters.
Visit this link to contact your members of Congress:
On behalf of firefighters and their families in our community, I urge you to retain Section 1098 of the Senate’s NDAA – the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act (H.R. 1269/S. 237) – in the final FY 2026 NDAA. This section extends survivor benefits to the families of first responders lost to job-related cancer.
Numerous medical studies have shown cancer to be the leading cause of death for firefighters. However, the Public Safety Officers Benefits (PSOB) program does not recognize occupational cancer as an eligible cause of death because it cannot be definitively linked to a single, specific emergency response. This connection between firefighting and cancer is clear, but identifying the single emergency incident that caused the cancer is an impossible standard. Like the issues surrounding burn pit exposures for military service members, this technical error forces first responders’ survivors to struggle by denying them critically needed benefits.
Section 1098 of the Senate NDAA corrects this oversight and ensures first responders lost to job-related cancer will not be forgotten. This section is based on H.R. 1269/S. 237, which was moved unanimously through the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate. This bipartisan, commonsense provision must be retained in the final NDAA.
Please keep fighting for firefighters and keep Section 1098 (S. 237) in the final NDAA. I urge you also to cosponsor H.R. 1269 if you have not already done so.
