State Representative Kambium Buckner | Illinois General Assembly
State Representative Kambium Buckner | Illinois General Assembly
According to the Illinois General Assembly site, the legislature summarized the bill's official text as follows: "Amends the Workers' Compensation Act. Provides that post-traumatic stress disorder is to be rebuttably presumed to arise out of and to be causally connected to the hazards of employment of a person employed as a firefighter, emergency medical technician (EMT), emergency medical technician-intermediate (EMT-I), advanced emergency medical technician (A-EMT), or paramedic."
The following is our breakdown, based on the actual bill text, and may include interpretation to clarify its provisions.
In essence, this bill amends the Workers' Compensation Act to include a rebuttable presumption that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is connected to the job hazards faced by firefighters, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and paramedics. It specifies that this presumption applies to conditions or impairments resulting from various health risks such as bloodborne pathogens, staph infections, lung or heart diseases, tuberculosis, or cancer. The presumption does not apply to employees with less than five years of service or EMTs, EMT-Is, A-EMTs, or paramedics primarily engaged in non-emergency medical transfers for private employers. The bill maintains that findings regarding this presumption are not admissible in disability claims under the Illinois Pension Code.
Buckner graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a BA and again from DePaul University College of Law with a JD.
Kam Buckner is currently serving in the Illinois State House, representing the state's 26th House District. He replaced previous state representative Christian Mitchell in 2019.
Bills in Illinois follow a multi-step legislative process, beginning with introduction in either the House or Senate, followed by committee review, floor debates, and votes in both chambers before reaching the governor for approval or veto. The General Assembly operates on a biennial schedule, and while typically thousands of bills are introduced each session, only a fraction successfully pass through the process to become law.
You can read more about bills and other measures here.
| Bill Number | Date Introduced | Short Description |
|---|---|---|
| HB1292 | 01/13/2025 | Amends the Workers' Compensation Act. Provides that post-traumatic stress disorder is to be rebuttably presumed to arise out of and to be causally connected to the hazards of employment of a person employed as a firefighter, emergency medical technician (EMT), emergency medical technician-intermediate (EMT-I), advanced emergency medical technician (A-EMT), or paramedic. |
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