I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 705
To direct the Secretary of Defense to establish a compensation fund for
military firefighters exposed to PFAS.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY23, 2025
Ms. S
TRICKLAND(for herself and Mr. LAWLER) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Defense to establish a
compensation fund for military firefighters exposed to PFAS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. COMPENSATION FUND FOR MILITARY FIRE-3
FIGHTERS. 4
(a) P
ROGRAM ANDFUNDESTABLISHED.—Not later 5
than two years after the date of enactment of this Act, 6
the Secretary of Defense shall establish a program and 7
fund to be known as the ‘‘Military Firefighters Compensa-8
tion Fund’’. 9
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(b) PURPOSE OFPROGRAM.—The purpose of the 1
compensation program is to provide for timely, uniform, 2
and adequate compensation to current and former military 3
firefighters and, where applicable, survivors of such em-4
ployees, suffering from illnesses incurred by such employ-5
ees in the performance of duty for the Department of De-6
fense and certain of its contractors and subcontractors due 7
to exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or 8
PFAS. 9
(c) PFAS E
XPOSURE.—Current and former military 10
firefighters shall, in the absence of substantial evidence 11
to the contrary, be determined to have been exposed to 12
PFAS in the performance of duty for the purposes of the 13
compensation program if such firefighter was employed at 14
a military installation, facility of the National Guard, of 15
formerly used defense site during a period when PFAS 16
would have been present at such facility. 17
(d) C
OMPENSATIONPROVIDED.—A current or former 18
military firefighter, or the survivor of such firefighter if 19
the firefighter is deceased, shall receive compensation for 20
the disability or death of that employee from that employ-21
ee’s occupational illness. 22
(e) P
AYMENTS IN THE CASE OFDECEASEDPER-23
SONS.— 24
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(1) CLAIM FILED.—In the case of a military 1
firefighter who is deceased at the time of payment 2
of compensation under this section, whether or not 3
the death is the result of the firefighter’s occupa-4
tional illness, such payment may be made only as 5
follows: 6
(A) If the military firefighter is survived 7
by a spouse who is living at the time of pay-8
ment, such payment shall be made to such sur-9
viving spouse. 10
(B) If there is no surviving spouse de-11
scribed in subparagraph (A), such payment 12
shall be made in equal shares to all children of 13
the military firefighter who are living at the 14
time of payment. 15
(C) If there is no surviving spouse de-16
scribed in subparagraph (A) and if there are no 17
children described in subparagraph (B), such 18
payment shall be made in equal shares to the 19
parents of the military firefighter who are living 20
at the time of payment. 21
(D) If there is no surviving spouse de-22
scribed in subparagraph (A), and if there are 23
no children described in subparagraph (B) or 24
parents described in subparagraph (C), such 25
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payment shall be made in equal shares to all 1
grandchildren of the military firefighter who are 2
living at the time of payment. 3
(E) If there is no surviving spouse de-4
scribed in subparagraph (A), and if there are 5
no children described in subparagraph (B), par-6
ents described in subparagraph (C), or grand-7
children described in subparagraph (D), then 8
such payment shall be made in equal shares to 9
the grandparents of the military firefighter who 10
are living at the time of payment. 11
(F) Notwithstanding the other provisions 12
of this paragraph, if there is— 13
(i) a surviving spouse described in 14
subparagraph (A); and 15
(ii) at least one child of the military 16
firefighter who is living and a minor at the 17
time of payment and who is not a recog-18
nized natural child or adopted child of 19
such surviving spouse, then half of such 20
payment shall be made to such surviving 21
spouse, and the other half of such payment 22
shall be made in equal shares to each child 23
of the military firefighter who is living and 24
a minor at the time of payment. 25
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(2) BEFORE FILING OF CLAIM.—If a current or 1
former military firefighter eligible for payment dies 2
before filing a claim under this section, a survivor of 3
that firefighter who may receive payment under 4
paragraph (1) may file a claim for such payment. 5
(3) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 6
(A) The term ‘‘child’’ includes a recognized 7
natural child, a stepchild who lived with an in-8
dividual in a regular parent-child relationship, 9
or an adopted child. 10
(B) The term ‘‘grandchild’’ means the 11
child of a child of an individual. 12
(C) The term ‘‘grandparent’’ means the 13
parent of a parent of an individual. 14
(D) The term ‘‘parent’’ includes fathers 15
and mothers through adoption. 16
(E) The term ‘‘spouse’’ means the wife or 17
husband of a deceased individual who was mar-18
ried to such individual for at least one year im-19
mediately before such death. 20
(f) M
EDICALBENEFITSPROVIDED.—The Secretary 21
shall furnish, to an individual receiving medical benefits 22
under this section for an illness, the services, appliances, 23
and supplies prescribed or recommended by a qualified 24
physician for that illness. 25
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(g) TRANSPORTATION AND EXPENSES.—The indi-1
vidual may be furnished necessary and reasonable trans-2
portation and expenses incident to the securing of such 3
services, appliances, and supplies. 4
(h) C
OMMENCEMENT OF BENEFITS.—An individual 5
receiving benefits under this section shall be furnished 6
those benefits as of the date on which that individual sub-7
mitted the claim for those benefits in accordance with this 8
section. 9
(i) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 10
(1) The term ‘‘military firefighter’’ means a 11
member of the Armed Forces or a civilian employee 12
of the Department of Defense whose military occu-13
pational specialty or primary duties are fire suppres-14
sion and prevention. 15
(2) The term ‘‘military installation’’ has the 16
meaning given such term in section 2801(c)(4) of 17
title 10, United States Code. 18
(3) The term ‘‘PFAS’’ means perfluoroalkyl 19
and polyfluoroalkyl substances. 20
(4) The term ‘‘perfluoroalkyl substance’’ means 21
a man-made chemical of which all the carbon atoms 22
are fully fluorinated carbon atoms. 23
(5) The term ‘‘polyfluoroalkyl substance’’ 24
means a man-made chemical with at least one fully 25
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fluorinated carbon atom and at least one 1
nonfluorinated carbon atom. 2
(j) A
UTHORIZATION FOR COMPENSATION FUND.— 3
There is hereby authorized such sums as may be necessary 4
to carry out this section. 5
Æ
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