Public Safety Officers' Benefit Act and CAP Redux

[sardak]

A rider to the 2013 Defense Authorization Act (HR 4310) makes changes to the Public Safety Officers' Benefit (PSOB) Act. Among them is adding volunteers to those covered. The Authorization Act passed the Senate Conference Committee yesterday, 12/21, and was sent back to the House. The next step is for the bill to go to the President. Specific changes to the PSOB act are:

...striking ''public employee member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew;'' and inserting ''employee or volunteer member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew (including a ground or air ambulance service) that—
(A) is a public agency; or
(B) is (or is a part of) a nonprofit entity serving the public that—
    (i) is officially authorized or licensed to engage in rescue activity or to provide emergency medical services; and
    (ii) engages in rescue activities or provides emergency medical services as partof an official emergency response system;"

The definition of rescue in the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Act of 1976, is "Rescue activity means search or rescue assistance in locating or extracting from danger persons lost, missing, or in imminent danger of serious bodily harm.

RiverAux started a thread in 2009 http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=7956.0 on whether CAP members are covered by the PSOB Act. One of the major discussion points was the "public employee" requirement vs volunteer. This change clearly makes volunteers eligible.

To find the latest on the Defense Authorization Act of 2013, HR 4310, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.php  choose bill number at the top center, enter HR4310, then search. I can't link to the search results because the site times out.

Public Safety Officers' Benefit page:  https://www.psob.gov/psob_info_kit.html

Mike

[RiverAux]

Of course, I already thought we were covered, but this would definitely make it clearer. 

[SJFedor]

...striking ''public employee member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew;'' and inserting ''employee or volunteer member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew (including a ground or air ambulance service) that—
(A) is a public agency; or
(B) is (or is a part of) a nonprofit entity serving the public that—
    (i) is officially authorized or licensed to engage in rescue activity or to provide emergency medical services; and
    (ii) engages in rescue activities or provides emergency medical services as partof an official emergency response system;"

I'm curious. What "rescue" services does CAP provide? CAP provides lots of manpower for the "search" portion, but rescue? Not so much.

[sardak]

^^^^^CAP doesn't have to provide any rescue services. As stated above "Rescue activity means search or rescue assistance in locating or extracting from danger persons lost, missing, or in imminent danger of serious bodily harm."

Mike