On Wednesday, Representative Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) introduced the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act of 2021 (H.R. 2499), which would ensure that federal firefighters receive the same access to job-related disability and retirement benefits as state, county, and municipal firefighters. A Senate companion bill (S. 838) was introduced in March by Senators Tom Carper (D-Delaware) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). Currently, federal firefighters are required to pinpoint the precise incident or exposure of damage for it to be considered job-related. This burden of proof is extraordinarily difficult for firefighters to meet because they work in such a wide variety of environments and conditions. While California was the first state to pass a firefighter’s presumptive illness law in 1982 that counteracts such burden of proof requirements, this and other state laws do not cover federal firefighters.
