Legislation introduced this week by U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., would allow families of contracted fire fighting crews to receive federal death benefits.

The senators introduced the Aerial Firefighter Relief Act of 2007, which would provide death and disability benefits for aerial firefighters who work on a contract basis for public agencies and suffer death or disability in the line of duty.

“A small technicality in current law is the only reason that aerial fire crews are disqualified from receiving federal benefits,” said Enzi. “These crews risk their lives doing the same work as full-time federal employees and they should get the same benefit coverage.”

“These contract pilots and crew members assume the same risks as government air crews when they climb into government-owned firefighting aircraft. Yet they are denied equal benefits if they are killed or injured in the line of duty. This is fundamentally unfair,” said Feinstein.

Currently, pilots that fly air tankers to fight fires on federal public lands do not qualify for death benefits under the Public Safety Officers’ Benefit (PSOB) program, which provides financial and educational benefits to individuals serving a public safety agency in an official capacity, on a paid or volunteer basis. This includes, but is not limited to, law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, ambulance crew members and corrections officers.

However, the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, the agency that administers the PSOB, has ruled that air tanker pilots are ineligible because they are contractors and not employed directly by the federal and state agencies involved in wild land fire management and suppression.

The bill is likely to be referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. A similar bill has been introduced in the House by Representative Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo.