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Tax Relief for First Responder Beneficiaries Act
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax relief relating to public safety officers' death benefits, and for other purposes.
Summary
The bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to expand tax relief for beneficiaries of deceased public safety officers. The bill broadens the definition of eligible recipients of excluded compensation from public safety officers' death benefits from surviving dependents to surviving beneficiaries. The bill also expands survivor annuity benefits to include beneficiaries of any life insurance policy or benefit plan of the public safety officer, not just children. Both amendments are effective for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2022.
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)
1 cosponsor
- Sen. Cruz, Ted [R-TX] (R-TX)
Actions (2)
- May 12, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. · senate
- May 12, 2026 Introduced in Senate
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.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 12, 2026
Mrs. Gillibrand (for herself and Mr. Cruz) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax relief relating to public safety officers’ death benefits, 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 “Tax Relief for First Responder Beneficiaries Act”.
SEC. 2. EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN COMPENSATION RECEIVED BY PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICERS AND THEIR BENEFICIARIES.
(a) In General.—Subparagraph (B) of section 104(a)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking “surviving dependents” and inserting “surviving beneficiaries”.
(b) Effective Date.—The amendment made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2022.
SEC. 3. SURVIVOR ANNUITY BENEFITS FOR PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICERS AND THEIR BENEFICIARIES.
(a) In General.—Subparagraph (A) of section 101(h)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking “a child of such officer” and inserting “a child or a beneficiary of any life insurance policy or benefit plan of such officer”.
(b) Effective Date.—The amendment made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2022. <all>
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