H.R. 1269 — Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act of 2025

This section provides the short title of the Act as the “Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act of 2025.”

This section establishes a presumption that a public safety officer’s exposure to a carcinogen constitutes a line-of-duty personal injury, death, or permanent and total disability under 34 U.S.C. 10281 if the officer began service at least 5 years before diagnosis, was diagnosed within 15 years of last active service, and the cancer directly and proximately caused the death or disability, unless competent medical evidence shows the exposure was not a substantial contributing factor. As background, section 1201 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 provides death and disability benefits for public safety officers killed or disabled in the line of duty. The section defines “exposure-related cancer” to include 21 specified cancers, including any World Trade Center-related health condition under 42 U.S.C. 300mm–22(a), and authorizes the Bureau of Justice Assistance Director to update the list at least once every 3 years based on competent medical evidence, including studies or recommendations from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Toxicology Program, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, or the International Agency for Research on Cancer. It also allows any person to petition to add a cancer, requires the Director to refer qualifying petitions for expert review within 180 days, and requires notification to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees within 30 days after any substantive action. The section applies these changes to claims based on deaths on or after January 1, 2020, and disability claims filed on or after January 1, 2020, and permits affected individuals to file claims within 3 years of enactment.

This section revises the definition of “line of duty action” for the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits program under section 3 of the Safeguarding America’s First Responders Act of 2020 (34 U.S.C. 10281 note) to include any action in which a public safety officer was (1) engaged at the direction of the agency served by the officer or (2) authorized or obligated to perform. As background, the program provides a $250,000 death benefit, adjusted under existing law, and disability benefits to eligible public safety officers and their survivors when an officer dies or becomes permanently and totally disabled in the line of duty. The amendment applies to claims predicated on the death of a public safety officer on or after January 1, 2020, and to disability claims filed on or after January 1, 2020. It also allows an individual to file a claim based on the revised definition within 3 years of enactment, notwithstanding any other provision of law.