THE FOLLOWING RELEASE IS FROM STATE REP BRANDON SCHWEIZER’S OFFICE
DANVILLE, IL… State Representative Brandun Schweizer (R-Danville) has filed his first bills in the 104th General Assembly, both measures to benefit volunteer first responders.
Rep. Schweizer’s first bill, HB 1353, amends the Volunteer Emergency Worker Protection Act to ensure that volunteer first responders are protected when they need to be absent from their full-time jobs due to mandatory training required for volunteer first responders or when they need to be absent to respond to an emergency. The legislation makes four main changes:
- Adds language to the Volunteer Worker Protection Act that would prohibit penalization of employees by their employers for missing work due to responding to an emergency or participating in required training needed to be a first responder.
- Adds “participating in required training needed to be a first responder” to reasons why an employee who is also a first responder cannot be terminated or fired.
- Includes that employers cannot force employees who are also first responders to take vacation or compensatory time to respond to an emergency or participate in training.
- Provides that the Act does not apply to any employer that is a municipality with a population of 15,000 or more, making the change from 7,500 or more.
The second piece of legislation filed by Rep. Schweizer is HB 1386, which focuses on amending the Illinois Income Tax Act to:
- Increase the amount of credit for volunteer emergency workers per taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and beginning before January 1, 2029, from $500 to $1,000 per eligible individual.
- Increases the aggregate amount of the volunteer emergency worker credits to $6,000,000 from $5,000,000 per year starting in 2026.
“In rural Illinois, many fire and EMS departments do not have the luxury of full-time crews and rely on the selflessness of volunteer first responders who hold other jobs,” said Rep. Schweizer. “Without volunteer first responders, many small municipalities would not have departments or crews and would need to rely on the nearest hospital or other emergency service, which for some towns, is too long to wait in an emergency. My bills seek to change how volunteer first responders are protected and incentivized so that small municipalities can continue to have volunteer fire and EMS departments.”
HB 1386 has been assigned to the House Revenue and Finance Committee for a hearing this week in the Income Tax Subcommittee and HB 1353 awaits further action.
With questions regarding either piece of legislation, please contact Rep. Schweizer at (217) 477-0104 or by visiting RepSchweizer.com.
