Almost three years ago, President Bush signed the
Hometown Heroes Act into law on December
15, 2003. A year ago, the Department of Justice’s Bureau
of Justice Assistance (BJA) posted the initial proposed rules
for the implementation of the Hometown Heroes Act for comment. NAPO had some concerns with
the draft language and formally submitted comments to the BJA. When the final rules were published in the Federal
Register on August 10, 2006, NAPO was pleased to see many
of our suggestions had been incorporated.
The provisions of the Hometown Heroes Act were finally
implemented on September 11, 2006. The regulations can be found on NAPO’s website, www.napo.org.
Hope Janke, who heads the Public Safety Officers
Benefit Program (PSOB), spoke to our members about the new regulations
at our Annual Legal Rights and Legislative Seminar on October
4. NAPO took this opportunity to
personally thank her and the PSOB office, for taking into account
and using NAPO’s suggestions in the composition
of the final rules.
This necessary expansion of the Department of Justice’s
Public Safety Officers Benefit Program (PSOB) extends coverage
to include those officers who suffer debilitating or fatal heart
attacks or strokes while on, or related to, active duty or training
work.
Families of any public safety officer who died of
a heart attack or stroke in the line of duty since December
15th, 2003, must submit an application to the PSOB office
to find out if they are eligible.
Survivors must file for the benefit within three years
of the officer’s death, leaving only a couple of months for those
who lost a family member shortly after the bill became a law.
The PSOB Program now has an online application system
in which you can file for survivor benefits. Currently the website (https://www.psob.gov) only accepts applications
for death benefits, but the PSOB office is working on including
disability and educational benefits applications on the website
in the near future.
NAPO is proud to have worked
on strengthening the PSOB program over the years. NAPO’s accomplishments include
helping to increase the program’s one time base payment, as well
as our current victory of the enactment and implementation of
the Hometown Heroes Act.
New provisions, including the Hometown Heroes Act
available here
for review.
