{"id":651,"date":"2023-03-23T08:08:49","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T13:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/?p=651"},"modified":"2023-03-24T08:09:27","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T13:09:27","slug":"stephens-supported-legislation-to-ensure-covid-19-impacted-chicago-police-officers-and-firefighters-are-entitled-to-duty-disability-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/stephens-supported-legislation-to-ensure-covid-19-impacted-chicago-police-officers-and-firefighters-are-entitled-to-duty-disability-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephens-Supported Legislation to Ensure COVID-19 Impacted Chicago Police Officers and Firefighters are Entitled to Duty Disability Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPRINGFIELD \u2013 On Thursday, pension legislation that will establish a presumption that Chicago firefighters or police officers who obtained a disability from contracting COVID-19 were injured in the line of duty and are entitled to duty disability benefits unanimously passed the House of Representatives. House Assistant Minority Leader Brad Stephens (R-Rosemont) was a chief co-sponsor of this legislation,\u00a0House Bill 3162<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSince March 2020, first responders have continued to risk their lives in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and many of them caught and tragically succumbed to this disease,\u201d said Leader Stephens. \u201cWe owe our first responders the disability benefits to which they are entitled, especially after they stayed on the front lines during the unpredictable COVID pandemic in its worst waves. I\u2019m glad we can advance this for Chicago firefighters and police officers and will continue to support first responders recovering from the impacts of COVID.\u201d<\/p>\n

HB 3162 applies to officers and firefighters under the Chicago Police and Firefighter Articles of the Illinois Pension Code. It will also be retroactive to March 9th<\/sup>, 2020 and to police officers and firefighters who were previously denied duty disability benefits that would be entitled to it under the bill\u2019s implementation.<\/p>\n

According to a 2022 report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Foundation, COVID-19 was \u201cthe number one cause of law enforcement deaths in 2022.\u201d COVID has taken the lives of several Illinois police officers from the Chicago Police Department, Aurora Police Department, Cook County Sheriff\u2019s Office, and more.<\/p>\n

Rep. Stephens has fought to protect first responders and has worked to protect first responders facing the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020. He joined a bipartisan coalition of state legislators in supporting an agreement on workers compensation benefits to be paid when first responders contract COVID-19 on the job and entitle families of firefighters and police officers to full death benefits should they have died as a result from COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Rep. Stephens is a member of the House Police & Fire Committee. HB 3162 will be sent to the Senate for debate and consideration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPRINGFIELD \u2013 On Thursday, pension legislation that will establish a presumption that Chicago firefighters or police officers who obtained a disability from contracting COVID-19 were injured in the line of duty and are entitled to duty disability benefits unanimously passed the House of Representatives. House Assistant Minority Leader Brad Stephens (R-Rosemont) was a chief co-sponsor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions\/653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}