Members of the fire service are advocating for HR 3367, the Disabled Public Safety Officer Fairness Act of 2011, while others fear the House bill will dilute funding already allocated to disabled firefighters and their families.

Co-sponsored by Reps. Charles Rangel [D-N.Y.] and Tom Reed [R-N.Y.], HR 3367 revises provisions of the Public Safety Officer Disability Benefit law that pays disability benefits only to public-safety officers injured after 1990.

Under the 1990 act, Congress must set aside money to the disability fund. In 2012, the fund was appropriated $16.3 million for disability benefits or about $323,000 per claimant. Fund monies also are allocated for educational benefits paid to children of fallen and disabled public-safety officers.

“But the law does not include [disability benefits] to public safety officers injured before the date it was created,” according to Mike Nicholsons, a disabled firefighter who is lobbying for the bill’s passage.

With HR 3367, public-safety officer disability benefits would be available to officers disabled prior to 1990, Nicholsons said.

Rangel and Reed proposed changing the current act’s language by inserting new language that states benefits can be allocated to injured public-safety officers “whether before, on, or after the date of the enactment of this Act.”

HR 3367 also would include language that states any public safety officer seeking a benefit under the basis of having been permanently and totally disabled as the direct result of a catastrophic injury sustained in the line of duty may file a claim on the date the Disabled Public Safety Officers Fairness Act of 2011 is enacted.

While many in the fire-service support the bill, one beltway source said some worry that an increase of claims would dilute the amount of monies available for disability payments to officers and their families, making it less effective to support those in need.

The bill is in the first step of the legislative process. It has been referred to the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.