Title: Joshua John Comeau First Responder Cancer Benefit Act of 2020
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement

Summary:
Joshua John Comeau First Responder Cancer Benefit Act of 2020
This bill creates a presumption that a public safety officer who was exposed to a known carcinogen while working and who dies from a cancer related to that exposure on or after January 1, 2018, is eligible for certain benefits payable to public safety officers injured or killed in the line of duty.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8649 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 8649

  To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to 
   provide for a presumption of eligibility for benefits for certain 
 public safety officers who died of exposure-related cancers, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 20, 2020

Mrs. Walorski introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to 
   provide for a presumption of eligibility for benefits for certain 
 public safety officers who died of exposure-related cancers, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Joshua John Comeau First Responder 
Cancer Benefit Act of 2020''.

SEC. 2. EXPOSURE-RELATED CANCER.

    Section 1201 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 
Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10281) is amended by adding at the end 
the following:
    ``(o)(1) As determined by the Bureau, an exposure-related cancer 
resulting in the death of a public safety officer shall be presumed to 
constitute a personal injury within the meaning of subsection (a), 
sustained in the line of duty by the officer and directly and 
proximately resulting in death, if that public safety officer was 
exposed to or in contact with any known carcinogen, or carcinogenic 
substance or condition while at the scene of an accident, a fire, or 
any other rescue or public safety operation.
    ``(2) For purposes of this subsection, the term `exposure-related 
cancer' includes the following:
            ``(A) Mesothelioma.
            ``(B) Testicular cancer.
            ``(C) Multiple myeloma.
            ``(D) Leukemia.
            ``(E) Non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
            ``(F) Skin cancer.
            ``(G) Malignant melanoma.
            ``(H) Brain cancer.
            ``(I) Prostate cancer.
            ``(J) Colon cancer.
            ``(K) Stomach cancer.
            ``(L) Lung cancer.
            ``(M) Esophagus cancer.
            ``(N) Kidney cancer.
            ``(O) Bladder cancer.
            ``(P) Any other form of cancer that the Bureau may 
        determine appropriate.''.

SEC. 3. APPLICABILITY.

    The amendment made by section 2 shall apply in the case of any 
public safety officer who died on or after January 1, 2018, as a result 
of an exposure-related cancer.
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