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Ensuring Casualty Assistance for our Firefighters Act
To direct the Secretary of the Interior to develop a Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to develop a Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program within six months to support the next-of-kin of firefighters and wildland fire support personnel who are killed or critically injured in the line of duty. The program would handle notifications to next-of-kin, reimburse travel expenses to visit injured or deceased personnel, assign and train casualty assistance officers, and establish case management procedures. The program would provide information about federal benefits and assistance available to survivors through a website at no cost and establish complaint mechanisms for survivors. The program would coordinate with the Departments of Interior and Justice and the Social Security Administration to resolve benefits issues. Existing Line of Duty Death benefits would remain unchanged.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Rep. Harder, Josh [D-CA-9] (D-CA)
3 cosponsors
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Josh Harder’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- GOOGLE $34,620
- BESSEMER VENTURE PARTNERS $28,100
- STANFORD UNIVERSITY $25,550
- BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP $19,800
- COOLEY LLP $16,200
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Josh Harder → · Outside spending →
Actions (7)
- Feb 11, 2026 Ordered to be Reported by Unanimous Consent. · house
- Feb 11, 2026 Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held · house
- Feb 11, 2026 Subcommittee on Federal Lands Discharged · house
- Dec 2, 2025 Subcommittee Hearings Held · house
- Nov 25, 2025 Referred to the Subcommittee on Federal Lands. · house
- Jul 23, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. · house
- Jul 23, 2025 Introduced in House
More bills on these subjects (8)
Other bills that carry the most legislative subjects in common with this one (topical discovery — distinct from the procedural related bills above).
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
Bills are re-published as they move (Introduced → Reported → Engrossed → Enrolled …). Each stage below is a separate text; pick two to see what changed. Data from Congress.gov.
Committee action
What happened to this bill in committee — the meetings where it was considered and every recorded vote taken on it.
Meetings where this bill was on the agenda
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 23, 2025
Mr. Harder of California (for himself and Mr. Scott Franklin of Florida) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of the Interior to develop a Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program, 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 “Ensuring Casualty Assistance for our Firefighters Act”.
SEC. 2. WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT CASUALTY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.
(a) Development of Program.—Not later than 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior shall develop a Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program (referred to in this section as the “Program”) to provide assistance to the next-of-kin of—
(1) firefighters who, while in the line of duty, suffer illness or are critically injured or killed; and
(2) wildland fire support personnel critically injured or killed in the line of duty.
(b) Aspects of Program.—The Program shall address the following:
(1) The initial and any subsequent notifications to the next-of-kin of a firefighter or wildland fire support personnel who—
(A) is killed in the line of duty; or
(B) requires hospitalization or treatment at a medical facility due to a line-of-duty injury or illness.
(2) The reimbursement of next-of-kin for expenses associated with travel to visit a firefighter or wildland fire support personnel who—
(A) is killed in the line of duty; or
(B) requires hospitalization or treatment at a medical facility due to a line-of-duty injury or illness.
(3) The qualifications, assignment, training, duties, supervision, and accountability for the performance of casualty assistance responsibilities.
(4) The relief or transfer of casualty assistance officers, including notification to survivors of critical injury or illness in the line of duty and next-of-kin of the reassignment of such officers to other duties.
(5) Centralized, short-term and long-term case management procedures for casualty assistance, including rapid access by survivors of firefighters or wildland fire support personnel and casualty assistance officers to expert case managers and counselors.
(6) The provision, through a computer accessible website and other means and at no cost to survivors and next-of-kin of firefighters or wildland fire support personnel, of personalized, integrated information on the benefits and financial assistance available to such survivors from the Federal Government.
(7) The provision of information to survivors and next-of- kin of firefighters or wildland fire support personnel on mechanisms for registering complaints about, or requests for, additional assistance related to casualty assistance.
(8) Liaison with the Department of the Interior, the Department of Justice, and the Social Security Administration to ensure prompt and accurate resolution of issues relating to benefits administered by those agencies for survivors of firefighters or wildland fire support personnel.
(9) Data collection, in consultation with the United States Fire Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, regarding the incidence and quality of casualty assistance provided to survivors of firefighters or wildland fire support personnel.
(c) Line of Duty Death Benefits.—The Program shall not affect existing authorities for Line of Duty Death benefits for Federal firefighters and wildland fire support personnel.
(d) Next-of-Kin Defined.—In this section, the term “next-of-kin” means person or persons in the highest category of priority as determined by the following list (categories appear in descending order of priority):
(1) Surviving legal spouse.
(2) Children (whether by current or prior marriage) age 18 years or older in descending precedence by age.
(3) Father or mother, unless by court order custody has been vested in another (adoptive parent takes precedence over natural parent).
(4) Siblings (whole or half) age 18 years or older in descending precedence by age.
(5) Grandfather or grandmother.
(6) Any other relative (precedence to be determined in accordance with the civil law of descent of the deceased former member’s State of domicile at time of death). <all>
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