More than a year and a half after the West Seattle attack that left then-Officer Jason McKissack with brain damage that has kept him from returning to work – and weeks after the city ended his employment because he cannot return – the State Senate has just passed a bill that will keep catastrophically injured public-safety personnel like him from going without medical coverage. (46 senators including West Seattle’s Sen. Joe McDermott voted for it – no one against it – there were 3 abstention/absences.) If you’ve been following along with us, it was no slam dunk – a version of the bill stalled in the State Senate last year; this year, public-safety advocates lobbied hard for it – Jason McKissack and his wife Kim both testified before committees in Olympia — and lots of public support ensued. Next step (3:32 pm update, thanks to legislative expert Gary Gardner) – we’re told it has to go back to the State House for them to sign off on an amendment that the Senate had made. So one more hurdle to clear. 4:41 PM UPDATE: Advocate Renee Maher says in the comments that this would be retroactive both for the McKissacks and also for a Seattle firefighter who suffered a catastrophic injury on the job 7 years ago. We asked her for formal comment – first, her reaction:

This is a day to celebrate! No longer can we say that officers and firefighters are better off dead for the sake of their families. Today is one of those days that you reflect upon for a long, long time. Every single person who called their legislators or wrote an email on behalf of this bill, you should know that you deserve to celebrate this day as well. A very big thank you goes out to the West Seattle Blog. Please hold your head high and know that your coverage was a huge part of this effort! If ever there was a perfect example of a community coming together to support our heroes, this was it!

She also explains how the bill applies:

The bill creates a new section in the enumerated benefits given to catastrophically disabled officers and firefighters. It will apply to EVERYONE in the Law Enforcement Officer and Firefighter Plan (LEOFF) 2 pension system (which includes all officers/firefighters hired after October 1977 to present) and the Washington State Patrol (WSP is in a different pension system). In other words, anyone who currently qualifies as catastrophically disabled, no matter when the disability occurred, will now start receiving this benefit. That includes Jason McKissack. Mark Jones, a Seattle Firefighter who was catastrophically disabled in Dec 2003, will also be covered by this legislation.

We’ll keep an eye on the House’s concurrence calendar, and we are already on the governor’s press-info list, so we’ll have the information on where and when a signing would happen, once it’s announced. (Signings aren’t always in Olympia – last year we covered the governor’s signing ceremony for the Alaskan Way Viaduct/Tunnel bill, held at the Seattle Aquarium, with a slew of other, unrelated bills signed afterward.) ADDED 5:13 PM: An official news release from the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild – read on:

The Seattle Police officers Guild, and the Council of Metropolitan Police and Sheriffs are pleased to announce that Substitute House Bill 1679, “The Jason McKissack Act” which will provide medical insurance for Law Enforcement Officers and Fire Fighters who are catastrophically disabled in the line of duty unanimously passed the Senate today.

This bill helps to fill a hole that Law Enforcement Officers and Fire Fighters in this state face. Law Enforcement Officers and Fire Fighters put their lives on the line everyday and it is imperative that should they be catastrophically disabled in the line of duty they and their families should be provided medical insurance. Currently line of duty death survivors receive medical benefits if their Law Enforcement Officer or Fire Fightergives their life in the line of duty. This is not the case for a Law Enforcement Officer or Fire Fighter who manages to survive but is catastrophically disabled. We should never have a situation where a Law Enforcement Officer or Fire Fighters family is better off financially if they had been killed in the line of duty rather than be catastrophically disabled.

Seattle Police Guild President Rich O’Neill stated “the passage of this bill was one more major step in ensuring that the state meet the promise they made to Law Enforcement Officers, that they would protect those who put their life on the line everyday for this great state. We are grateful to the Senators for acknowledging the importance of this bill and passing it unanimously. We also want to thank all the citizens of this state who took a moment out of their day to call or write their legislator in support of this bill.”

COMPAS Executive Director Renee Maher stated “This is a day to celebrate! No longer can we say that officers and firefighters are better off dead for the sake of their families. Today is one of those days that you reflect upon for a long, long time. Every single person who called their legislators or wrote an email on behalf of this bill, should know that you deserve to celebrate this day as well.”

The Bill now will go back to the House of Representatives, for passage of an amendment that the Senate added to the bill regarding Medicare. After it passes the House, it will then be ready for the Governor to sign.