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House Appropriations Committee backs S.89 to expand survivors' benefit for emergency and certain state employees
Summary
The committee voted to support S.89, which would extend the state's $80,000 one-time survivors' death benefit to four additional employee categories (law enforcement certified by the Vermont Criminal Justice Council, specified DOC staff, certain DCF family services employees, and classified medical staff in state therapeutic residences); the measure is prospective to deaths on or after July 1, 2026.
The House Appropriations Committee voted to support S.89 on April 16, 2026, a bill that would expand a Vermont one-time survivors' death benefit to four additional classes of employees and clarify administrative procedures for paying awards.
Sophie Sadati of the Office of Legislative Council told the committee the existing survivors' benefit is a "one-time lumpsum payment of $80,000" payable to survivors of firefighters and emergency medical personnel and that S.89 would add certified law-enforcement officers, certain Department of Corrections facility employees who provide direct security and treatment services to offenders under community supervision, classified family services employees in the Department for Children and Families, and classified medical employees of state-operated therapeutic community residences or inpatient psychiatric units.
The bill makes the expansion prospective: survivors of the newly added…
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