H.R. 1269: Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act of 2025

H.R. 1269 changes how federal Public Safety Officers' Benefits claims work when an officer dies or becomes permanently and totally disabled after certain cancer diagnoses. Instead of requiring families or officers to build the full causation case themselves, the bill says the cancer is presumed to be line-of-duty related if three conditions are met: the exposure happened during duty, the officer served at least 5 years before diagnosis, and the diagnosis came within 15 years of the officer's last active service.

The bill names 20 cancers outright, including lung cancer, leukemia, mesothelioma, breast cancer, prostate cancer, melanoma, and multiple myeloma. It also includes cancers treated as World Trade Center-related health conditions, and it lets the covered list grow later if medical evidence supports it.

That matters most in the hardest cases: a family filing after a death, or an officer trying to qualify for permanent disability benefits years after the exposure happened. The presumption is not absolute — the government can still deny a claim if competent medical evidence shows the exposure was not a substantial contributing factor.

The bill also reopens the timeline for some recent cases. It applies to death claims tied to deaths on or after January 1, 2020, and disability claims filed on or after January 1, 2020, with a 3-year window after enactment to file under the new rules.

Beyond the claims change, H.R. 1269 tells the Justice Department to revisit the covered-cancer list at least every 3 years and creates a petition process for adding more cancers. It also broadens confidentiality rules for information given to the Office of Justice Programs.