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Committee approves reversing a bar on death-benefit payouts after suicide for first responders
Summary
Committee added a reverse repealer and moved a bill to allow law-enforcement officers' and firefighters' families access to death-benefit trust funds when the death resulted from suicide or intentionally self-inflicted injury after traumatic events.
A committee item (filed as ~2794 in the transcript) seeks to remove language that currently prohibits payouts from the law-enforcement officers and firefighters death-benefits trust fund when the death was the result of suicide or intentionally self-inflicted injury. The sponsor said many first responders later die by suicide after experiencing traumatic events and that their families currently can be excluded from benefits.
The chair described the rationale: officers exposed to traumatic incidents later committing suicide should not leave their families without access to benefits that would be payable had the death been caused by another person in the line of duty. The committee adopted a reverse repealer amendment and reported the measure with title sufficient, and then rose to report out the committee action.
