“To direct the Secretary of the Interior to develop a Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section directs the Secretary of the Interior to develop, not later than 6 months after enactment, the Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program to provide assistance to next-of-kin of firefighters and wildland fire support personnel who suffer illness, critical injury, or death in the line of duty. The program requires (1) initial and subsequent notifications to next-of-kin; (2) reimbursement of next-of-kin travel expenses; (3) standards for qualifications, training, duties, supervision, and accountability of casualty assistance officers; (4) procedures for officer relief or transfer, including survivor notifications; (5) centralized short- and long-term case management with access to expert managers and counselors; (6) no-cost provision of personalized benefits information via website and other means; (7) mechanisms for survivor complaints and assistance requests; (8) liaison with the Departments of the Interior and Justice and the Social Security Administration for benefits resolution; and (9) data collection on casualty assistance, in consultation with the U.S. Fire Administration and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The program does not affect existing line-of-duty death benefits authorities. Next-of-kin is defined by descending priority: (1) surviving legal spouse; (2) children age 18 or older; (3) parents (adoptive over natural); (4) siblings age 18 or older; (5) grandparents; (6) other relatives per state law of descent.