Internal NFFE News
October 31, 2023
Last week, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (HSGAC) voted to approve the Honoring Civil Servants Killed in the Line of Duty Act (S. 3029) for further consideration by the full Senate. The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) endorses this legislation, which would increase benefits provided to the surviving family of a federal employee who died on the job or from injuries sustained while in the line of duty.
“NFFE-IAM is pleased to see bipartisan support for this bill,” said NFFE National President Randy Erwin. “In the most tragic of situations for our nation’s civil servants, it is necessary that our government provides ample funds to honor those killed in the line of duty and ensures their surviving family is taken care of.”
Sponsored by Senators Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Josh Hawley (R-MO), the bipartisan bill would increase gratuity payments from $10,000 to $100,000 and funeral expenses from $800 to $8,000. The funding for these benefits has not been updated in over 25 years.
“It is far past the time to update the death benefits for federal employees who are killed in the line of duty,” continued Erwin. “In increasingly dangerous work environments for law enforcement officers, firefighters, and feds in various jobs across the country, the current benefits originally set in the Johnson Administration are inexcusable. Frankly, it is insulting and not nearly enough to see a surviving family through a tragic period of loss. The increase to death benefits does not impact discretionary budgets, and it will ensure that future incidents involving the ultimate sacrifice of federal workers will not be devalued again. This is not a partisan issue. Let’s get this done quickly.”