August 4, 2022
Yesterday, the First Responder Fair RETIRE Act (S. 129) passed through the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (HSGAC) under unanimous consent without amendments. The bill, which passed in the House 417 to 0 in July, will likely head to the Senate floor this Fall.
The legislation requires agencies to place injured first responders who return to work with injuries into “equivalent positions” as they held before, thereby protecting their employment and accelerated retirement status. In addition, the act prevents first responders from losing thousands of dollars from forfeited retirement contributions that were paid by the employee at a higher than standard rate under their “6(c)” retirement system. NFFE has been advocating for Congress to fix the 6(c) retirement system for injured employees for more than a decade, now pushing for lawmakers to finally send a bill to the President’s desk this year.
“It is great to see bipartisan support for such an important bill supporting our federal first responders who suffer injuries while serving our country,” said NFFE National President Randy Erwin. “I appreciate the Committee’s leadership for working across the aisle and unanimously pushing this legislation forward. Thank you to Senator Tester for his unwavering support throughout several sessions of Congress, as well as Senators Collins (R-ME), Gillibrand (D-NY), Risch (R-ID), King (I-ME), Daines (R-MT), and Rosen (D-NV) for co-sponsoring the bill. I urge the Senate to follow the Committee’s example of full bipartisan support when this legislation comes up for a vote in the coming months.”