Protecting America's First Responders Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 1511, the Protecting America's First Responders Act. This bill will go a long way in supporting the families of fallen officers and improving the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program.

Improving the PSOB program has been a longstanding priority of mine. In fact, today's legislation includes a provision from my bill, the Heroes Lesley Zerebny and Gil Vega First Responders Survivors Support Act, which fixes the benefit determination date so that families don't lose out on thousands of dollars because of bureaucratic delays.

In addition to passing today's legislation, we must also increase the PSOB death and disability benefit to get our law enforcement families the benefits they have earned and deserve.

I look forward to working with Chairman Nadler to build on today's success and passing my bill, the First Responders Survivors Support Act, to raise the PSOB benefit this Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the families of our Nation's law enforcement officers and vote ``yes'' on the Protecting America's First Responders Act.

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