WASHINGTON, DC – On May 16, Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) introduced the Frances Collender Public Safety Officers’ Benefit (PSOB) Improvement Act (S.899), which would increase the one-time federal payment to the families of public safety officers killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty from $150,000 to $250,000. The benefit would be adjusted annually in accordance with the Consumer Price Index. Senators George Allen (R-VA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) have signed on as original cosponsors.
The legislation is named after a Delaware state trooper killed in the line of duty earlier this year.
Under the PSOB program, a one-time financial benefit is paid to the eligible survivors of public safety officers whose deaths are the direct and proximate result of a traumatic injury sustained in the line of duty. Disability benefits are also provided to public safety officers who have been totally disabled by a catastrophic injury sustained in the line of duty, if that injury prevents them from performing gainful work.
The Fiscal Year (FY) 2000 benefit is $151,635. Since 1977, the PSOB program has received an average of 275 benefit claims each year.
The legislation was referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
