Title: Protect Health Care for Retired Public Safety Officers Act of 2019
Policy area: Emergency Management

Summary:
Protect Health Care for Retired Public Safety Officers Act of 2019
This bill directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), under the State Homeland Security Grant Program, to require each state to include in its grant application a certification for the protection of health care benefits for retired public safety officers. A public safety officer is a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or an emergency medical services provider whose conditions of employment are determined by a collective bargaining agreement.
Such certification must provide that the state will not (1) unilaterally modify or eliminate health care benefits for a public safety officer retiree, or (2) allocate grant funds to a local government or Indian tribe that has not certified to the state that such benefits will not be unilaterally modified or eliminated.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2046 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2046

 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to protect the health care 
  benefits of retired public safety officers, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 27, 2019

  Mr. Peters introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to protect the health care 
  benefits of retired public safety officers, 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 ``Protect Health Care for Retired 
Public Safety Officers Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. PROTECTION OF HEALTH CARE BENEFITS OF RETIRED PUBLIC SAFETY 
              OFFICERS.

    Title XX of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 601 et 
seq.) is amended--
            (1) in section 2001 (6 U.S.C. 601)--
                    (A) by redesignating paragraphs (12), (13), and 
                (14) as paragraphs (14), (15), and (16), respectively;
                    (B) by redesignating paragraphs (6) through (11) as 
                paragraphs (7) through (12), respectively;
                    (C) by inserting after paragraph (5) the following:
            ``(6) Health care benefits.--The term `health care 
        benefits' means health, dental, vision, prescription, and other 
        insurance benefits.''; and
                    (D) by inserting after paragraph (12), as so 
                redesignated, the following:
            ``(13) Public safety officer.--The term `public safety 
        officer' means an employee of a public agency--
                    ``(A) who is a law enforcement officer, 
                firefighter, or an emergency medical services 
                responder; and
                    ``(B) whose conditions of employment are determined 
                in accordance with a collective bargaining 
                agreement.''; and
            (2) in section 2004(b)(2) (6 U.S.C. 605(b)(2))--
                    (A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (B) in subparagraph (C), by striking the period at 
                the end and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(D) a written certification stating that the 
                State shall not--
                            ``(i) unilaterally modify or eliminate the 
                        health care benefits for a public safety 
                        officer retiree, as established pursuant to the 
                        collective bargaining agreement in effect at 
                        the time of retirement of the public safety 
                        officer; or
                            ``(ii) allocate grant funds to a local 
                        government or Indian tribe that has not 
                        certified to the State that the health care 
                        benefits for a public safety officer retiree, 
                        as established pursuant to the collective 
                        bargaining agreement in effect at the time of 
                        retirement of the public safety officer, shall 
                        not be unilaterally modified or eliminated.''.
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