Sponsors (8)
The bill provides substantial federal funding to expand and standardize cancer screening access for firefighters and builds surveillance capacity to improve occupational health, at the cost of increased federal spending, privacy risks, possible limits from a per-test cap, and implementation complexity.
Fire service members nationwide gain expanded access to funded multi-cancer early-detection or preventive tests via a new $700 million appropriation, increasing screening availability and reducing out-of-pocket costs for firefighters.
Firefighters and EMS personnel can receive covered multi-cancer early detection or preventive tests, which should reduce late cancer diagnoses and improve survival and long-term health outcomes for those exposed to occupational hazards.
A voluntary FEMA–CDC program to collect anonymized test data will help identify occupational cancer trends and inform better prevention and policy decisions for fire service health and safety.
The $700 million federal appropriation increases federal spending and could contribute to budgetary trade-offs or higher deficits, affecting taxpayers and competing priorities.
Even though results are anonymized, sharing de-identified test data raises privacy and re-identification concerns for participating firefighters, potentially discouraging participation.
The $1,750 per-test payment cap may not cover higher-cost or emerging diagnostics, limiting access to more advanced or expensive tests for some firefighters.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes $700M in grants to fund cancer prevention tests for firefighting personnel and creates a voluntary FEMA–CDC program to collect de‑identified test results.
Creates a grant program within the existing Firefighter Assistance program to pay for cancer prevention testing for firefighting personnel and funds a voluntary, joint FEMA–CDC effort to collect anonymized test results to study cancer trends among firefighters. Authorizes $700 million for these grants and caps per-test payments at $1,750 from grant funds. Establishes a data-collection partnership between FEMA and the CDC to gather de‑identified test results to help identify causes and trends of cancer in firefighting personnel and updates cross‑references in the underlying statute to reflect the new grant authority.
Official title: To amend the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 to make available under the assistance to firefighters grant program the establishment of cancer prevention programs, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 26, 2025 by Josh S. Gottheimer · Last progress February 26, 2025