{"id":39632,"date":"2026-01-23T13:22:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=39632"},"modified":"2026-01-23T13:22:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:22:42","slug":"bill-to-provide-work-comp-for-firefighter-cancer-diagnoses-passed-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=39632","title":{"rendered":"Bill to provide work comp for firefighter cancer diagnoses passed over"},"content":{"rendered":"

After approximately five hours of general file debate, a bill that would provide workers\u2019 compensation benefits to firefighters who develop certain cancers was passed over Jan. 23 at the request of the introducer.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Dave Wordekemper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB400, sponsored by Fremont Sen. Dave Wordekemper, would amend the Nebraska Workers\u2019 Compensation Act to include cancer experienced by firefighters as a result of exposure to known carcinogens in the course of their employment.<\/p>\n

As introduced last session, the bill would establish a rebuttable presumption that cancer experienced by a firefighter arose out of the course of employment. The measure would apply to professional and volunteer firefighters who have served for at least five years.<\/p>\n

Retired firefighters would be eligible for medical benefits only and must be diagnosed within 60 months of retiring.<\/p>\n

Wordekemper said the International Agency for Research on Cancer recently classified firefighting as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning the profession itself is carcinogenic to humans and carries the highest level of cancer risk.<\/p>\n

Twenty-eight states have passed similar legislation providing all firefighters with a rebuttable presumption for occupational cancer, he said, but Nebraska presumes that cancer is duty related only if a firefighter dies as a result of the disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already know from science that wearing contaminated gear and running into burning buildings filled with carcinogens causes cancer,\u201d Wordekemper said. \u201cI ask that we give firefighters \u2026 the proper protections they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

A pending Business and Labor Committee amendment would replace LB400 with a modified version of the original proposal.<\/p>\n

The amendment would establish a rebuttable presumption only if two conditions are met: if a cancer was shown to be medically caused by employment-related exposure to cancer-causing substances, and if the firefighter\u2019s previous physical examinations showed no evidence of cancer.<\/p>\n

Kearney Sen. Stan Clouse offered an amendment to the committee amendment, adopted on a 25-20 vote, to address concerns about the inclusion of volunteer firefighters in LB400.<\/p>\n

Under the amendment, a volunteer firefighter would be eligible for benefits under the Nebraska Workers\u2019 Compensation Act only after serving for 10 years, during which time they must have actively participated in a minimum of 40% of the department\u2019s drills and 25% of the emergency calls received by the department. The amendment also would change the bill\u2019s operative date to Jan. 1, 2027.<\/p>\n

Clouse said the changes would ensure that volunteer firefighters who are active and exposed to high levels of carcinogens are provided the same rebuttable presumption for occupational cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cCancer doesn\u2019t discriminate between paid and volunteer fire departments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln supported the bill and both amendments, saying municipalities and employers, not the firefighters who are battling cancer, should bear the burden of rebutting workers\u2019 compensation claims. Individuals should not have to fight to afford treatment while also fighting for their lives, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about people who have put their lives on the line \u2026 and they get cancer as a part of their job,\u201d Dungan said. \u201cI think we owe it to the individuals in that profession to give them this rebuttable presumption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also speaking in support of LB400 and the amendments, Lincoln Sen. Danielle Conrad said a rebuttable presumption simply establishes a baseline for a legal argument while allowing the other party to disprove the claim by a preponderance of evidence.<\/p>\n

Such presumptions are not uncommon in state law, she said, noting that Nebraska has provided a rebuttable presumption to police officers and firefighters for death and disability benefits as a result of hypertension and heart or respiratory defect and disease for over 50 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t bankrupted the municipalities \u2026 [or] clogged the courts,\u201d Conrad said. \u201cIt\u2019s a longstanding presumption that we have had on the books that works well to actually acknowledge the unique, inherent risks associated with the task of \u2026 serving as a first responder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte spoke in opposition to the bill, which he called the \u201cmother of unfunded mandates.\u201d He said the measure could increase costs for municipalities significantly and expressed concern that funds needed to pay cancer benefits would be supplemented by raising property taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at rebuttable presumptions, you\u2019ve basically opened up the flood gates [so] that anyone who gets cancer \u2026 will file for this benefit,\u201d Jacobson said. \u201cWhere are we supposed to get that money?\u201d<\/p>\n

Syracuse Sen. Bob Hallstrom filed a series of procedural motions in opposition to LB400, saying the measure\u2019s rebuttable presumption under the Workers\u2019 Compensation Act does not exist for any other profession.<\/p>\n

The cornerstone of the state\u2019s workers\u2019 compensation system has always placed the burden on the employee to prove that a condition occurred in the course of their employment, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re disrupting the workers\u2019 compensation system,\u201d Hallstrom said.<\/p>\n

At Wordekemper\u2019s request, LB400 was passed over to provide time for additional negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter meeting with the opposition, we\u2019ve come to an agreement to sit down and see if we can work out our differences,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Legislature moved to the next item on the agenda without voting on the bill or the committee amendment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After approximately five hours of general file debate, a bill that would provide workers\u2019 compensation benefits to firefighters who develop certain cancers was passed over Jan. 23 at the request of the introducer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[303],"class_list":["post-39632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-labor","tag-sen-dave-wordekemper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/LB400Wordekemper1-20-26a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39632"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39634,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39632\/revisions\/39634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}