Supporters of bill to expand cancer coverage for Iowa firefighters, police are hopeful this will be the year it passes

DES MOINES — Emily Broderick described advocating for firefighter disability benefits in Iowa that cover all cancers — beyond the 14 currently covered — as overwhelming, disheartening, emotional and nerve-wracking.

Emily’s husband Mike was a Des Moines firefighter for 17 years before he died in 2024 from liver cancer, which is not among the cancers covered by Iowa firefighters’ disability benefits.

With proposed legislation advancing Monday by state lawmakers, Emily added a new description to her advocacy at the Iowa Capitol: hopeful.

Disability benefits for Iowa firefighters and police officers would be expanded to cover all cancers — beyond the 14 currently covered — under legislation that advanced Monday in the Iowa Senate — the place where previous attempts to move the proposal have faltered.

While still no guarantee, Monday’s action is a sign of hope that the bill may — unlike previous attempts — have enough support to be passed into law.

An amended version of the proposal, created to address concerns among Republican lawmakers in the Iowa Senate about the possible fiscal impact to local governments, would increase employee contributions to state firefighters’ and police officers’ retirement programs to help cover potential increased costs resulting from expanded coverage.

“These firefighters should be able to focus on their cancer treatment without the burden of knowing their job is on the line if they don’t get that coverage,” Emily Broderick told reporters Monday after a legislative hearing on the bill.

Majority Republicans in the Iowa House passed the bill last year and again this year. The proposal has in the past been met with resistance among Senate Republicans.

“It’s overwhelming at times. It’s been really disheartening,” Broderick said. “Because again, to me, and I think to everyone that has done a huge amount of work with this bill, this isn’t a Republican or Democrat, it’s bipartisan issue. So I guess we struggle with why some people wouldn’t support it. But they’re willing to listen and they have listened, and we’ve come back with an amended version, and hopefully with that they hear us and they’re supportive of it.”

Bill must pass Senate committee to survive this week’s ‘funnel’

The bill, House File 969, was approved Monday by a three-member subcommittee panel in the Senate.

That makes the bill eligible for consideration by the full Senate State Government Committee just ahead of this week’s legislative “funnel” deadline; by the end of this week, bills must have passed out of one full chamber and a committee in the opposite chamber to remain eligible for consideration.

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The bill was approved unanimously by the House last week.

Sen. Scott Webster, a Republican from Bettendorf, said the updated proposal has been the product of work and negotiations between Senate and House lawmakers and stakeholders. With the changes, the legislation still is supported by organizations representing Iowa firefighters and police officers, according to state lobbying records.

“I think we’ve come to a pretty good solution that — not everybody wins in this particular case, but I think we get to where we need to be,” Webster said during Monday’s legislative hearing. “I like difficult bills like this because it takes a lot of contribution from a lot of different people, from the police officers who are included in this, but may not necessarily get cancer as often as firefighters. But everybody came to the table and decided to put some money and some skin into the game out of their (retirement) contributions to also protect the taxpayers at the same time.”

In order to earn sufficient support ahead of this week’s legislative deadline, the bill must still pass the full Senate State Government Committee. Webster cautioned that while he could not guarantee anything, that after the amount of work that has been put into the bill and with the changes that have been made to address Senate Republicans’ concerns, he is more hopeful than he was before.

Just like Emily Broderick.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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