A bill has been introduced in the U.S. House that aims to help veteran firefighters.
Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger and Congressman Don Bacon (R-Nebraska-02), a U.S. Air Force veteran, introduced the Michael Lecik Military Firefighters Protection Act on Thursday. It aims to provide veteran firefighters with the compensation, health care, and retirement benefits they earned with their military service.
The bill is named for Michael Lecik, a Powhatan County resident who was deployed twice as a U.S. Air Force firefighter.
According to a release, Lecik was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in Feb. 2019, but the Veterans Health Administration does not cover the treatment costs for such disease because the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs does not often recognize the service connection between firefighting and cancer as a "presumptive service-connected disability" more than a year after active duty. Lecik's service ended in 2008.