A measure that would make it easier for Chicago’s first responders to acquire full disability benefits if they were sickened by COVID-19 passed through a state legislative committee.
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza speaks on behalf of her brother, police Sgt. Joaquin Mendoza, in the photo, during a news conference at Chicago City Hall on Feb. 21, 2022.
The bill passed 9-0 through the committee and is expected to be debated on the House floor in the next few weeks. If it passes through the full House, it will then move to the Senate. The state legislation would apply to Chicago police officers, firefighters and paramedics who got sick with the virus between March 9, 2020, and June 30, 2021. If they were previously denied a duty disability benefit they could acquire “a retroactive duty disability benefit.”
Mendoza told the House committee Thursday that her brother is on ordinary disability, ”which essentially acknowledges that he’s disabled but says that because he could not prove which specific act of duty as a police officer led him to contracting COVID,” he could not acquire the full duty benefits.
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