Line of Duty Act; payments to beneficiaries.
SB1195 amends Virginia’s Line of Duty Act to increase the death benefit payable to certain beneficiaries of public safety personnel and retirees. Under current law, beneficiaries of covered line-of-duty deaths occurring on or after January 1, 2006, receive $100,000, while certain deaths related to employment, retirement, or specified cancers receive $25,000. The bill raises the latter benefit to $75,000 for deaths occurring on or after January 1, 2025, while leaving the existing $75,000 and $100,000 categories for earlier line-of-duty deaths unchanged.
The measure applies to beneficiaries of deceased law-enforcement officers, firefighters, and other covered employees under the Line of Duty Act, and it directs payment either by a nonparticipating employer or through the Fund for participating employers. It also continues to tie eligibility for the smaller benefit to deaths arising out of employment, deaths within five years of retirement, or certain cancer-related deaths within 10 years of retirement, subject to related provisions in other sections of the Code of Virginia.
The bill would amend and reenact Section 9.1-402 of the Code of Virginia by increasing the statutory benefit for a defined class of beneficiaries from $25,000 to $75,000 for qualifying deaths occurring on or after January 1, 2025. This would increase potential fiscal obligations for the Line of Duty Act Fund and for nonparticipating employers responsible for direct payment, while preserving the existing benefit structure for older claims and the higher $100,000 benefit for deaths occurring in the line of duty on or after January 1, 2006. The affected parties are beneficiaries of deceased covered public safety personnel and retirees, as well as the employers and fund administrators responsible for payment.
The available voting history shows strong, unanimous support in the Senate, with the bill reported favorably from both committees and passed on the Senate floor without any recorded dissent. That pattern suggests broad agreement that the benefit increase is appropriate and consistent with the Commonwealth’s recognition of the sacrifices made by covered public safety personnel and their families. No committee transcript excerpts were provided, so there is no evidence in the record here of significant opposition or debate.
No specific contention is reflected in the provided materials, and the bill advanced unanimously at each recorded stage. The only likely policy issue is fiscal: increasing the benefit from $25,000 to $75,000 could raise costs for the Line of Duty Act Fund and for nonparticipating employers. Any disagreement would likely center on the size of the increase, the effective date, and the budgetary impact, but no member or stakeholder objections are included in the record provided.