WMUR: Bill Would Streamline Benefits Process for Families of Fallen Officers

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New Hampshire's Senate delegation is pushing for a bill that would streamline survivor benefits for families of fallen public servants.

U.S. Sens. Kelly Ayotte and Jeanne Shaheen are behind the effort to fix a system that many believe has been broken for some time.

Next week, slain Brentwood police Officer Steven Arkell's name will be added to the Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, D.C. But more than a year after his death, his family's survivor benefits remain in limbo.

"I'm very optimistic that we are going to get this law passed," Ayotte said.

Ayotte and Shaheen met Friday in Bedford with public safety officials from across the state as they expressed their concerns about the bureaucracy families often face in retrieving survivor benefits. They said the process can take years.

Ayotte said the bill she and Shaheen are supporting would streamline the survivor benefits process and ensure that a federal tax is not part of the equation.

"This ensures that no law enforcement officer's family or firefighter's family will ever again have to get a lawyer and apply to the IRS to be treated the way that they should be," Ayotte said.

"The next person who we lose tragically in the line of duty, their family will not have to go through with what we've seen with Officer Arkell's family, with too many families," Shaheen said.

Among those in attendance at the meeting was Greenland Police Chief Tara Laurent. In 2012, she succeeded Chief Mike Maloney, who was killed in the line of duty days before his retirement. She said that for the families, the process can't end with the memorial.

"We grieve them, and that's wonderful, but we can't forget the people, and it's important that they be able to get through this process without it being so difficult," she said.

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