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Committee advances wide-ranging recruitment-and-retention package for first responders
Summary
The Public Safety and Security Committee moved HB 5046 — a recruitment-and-retention package for police, firefighters, EMS and corrections — to the floor and added it to the consent calendar. The bill includes tuition waivers, a tax credit for long‑service volunteer firefighters and a task force to study expansion.
The Public Safety and Security Committee on March 17 voted to move HB 5046, a broad recruitment-and-retention bill for first responders, to the floor and added the measure to the committee’s consent calendar.
Committee chairs described the measure as a major, multi-part effort to address staffing shortages in police, fire, emergency medical services and related fields. The bill adds municipal and nonprofit EMS into eligible categories, clarifies tribal service recognition, preserves community-college and state university tuition-waiver provisions for eligible first responders, creates an income-tax credit for volunteer firefighters with 15 or more years of service and establishes a task force to examine future expansion to commercial EMS and corrections.
"We worked very collaboratively with the office of the governor, this committee, and other stakeholders to get this forward," the committee chair said as the measure was introduced to the docket. Senator Gassen, the committee’s co-chair, called the legislation “one of the single most significant pieces of legislation that we could move forward in our state” and urged strong, bipartisan support. Deputy Speaker Linehan thanked chairs for including corrections officers and said the bill offered an opportunity to address long‑running staffing challenges.
Members on both sides of the aisle praised the bill’s goal of improving recruitment and retention while flagging details to be refined before final floor action. Lawmakers asked for clearer definitions about who qualifies as an active volunteer for waiver eligibility and noted the potential need for a registry to verify active service. The chairs acknowledged those points and said they would work with stakeholders on careful drafting.
The committee moved HB 5046 JF (to the floor) and added it to the consent calendar. The clerk read the full consent calendar later in the session and the committee recorded a roll-call; chairs reminded members votes would remain open until 3:30 p.m. for absent members.
Next steps: HB 5046 will be considered on the floor according to the calendar schedule; committee leaders said they expect amendments and additional drafting to be filed before final action.
