Firefighters with Parkinson's gain federal compensation presumption
H.R. 4453 — To amend title 5, United States Code, to include Parkinson's disease in the list of illnesses and diseases deemed to be proximately caused by employment in fire protection activities, and for other purposes. · Filed by Valerie Hoyle (D-OR) · 12 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 16, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill adds Parkinson's disease to the federal list of illnesses legally presumed to be caused by firefighting work, entitling affected firefighters and their survivors to federal workers' compensation benefits without having to prove the disease was job-related. The bill benefits firefighters with Parkinson's and their families by removing the burden of proving causation.
Why we flagged it
The bill is a straightforward amendment to federal workers' compensation law, adding a specific occupational disease to a presumptive-causation list. It is a targeted public-health and worker-protection measure with no hidden mechanisms or private beneficiaries.
What the text implies
- Presumptive-causation amendments shift the evidentiary burden from workers to the government, potentially increasing federal workers' compensation payouts for firefighters with Parkinson's over time.
- The amendment may encourage epidemiological research into the occupational link between firefighting and Parkinson's, as the legal presumption reflects emerging occupational-health science.
- State and local fire departments may face increased pressure to adopt similar presumptive-causation rules for their own workers' compensation systems, creating a cascade effect beyond federal employees.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Firefighters with Parkinson's disease and their families gain a concrete legal presumption of occupational causation, eliminating the need to prove a causal link and enabling access to federal workers' compensation. This recognizes a documented occupational health risk and provides financial protection to a vulnerable workforce.
Named in the bill
firefighters, federal workers' compensation system, 5 U.S.C. § 8143b(b), fire protection workers
Where it stands
12 cosponsors: 9 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
- Jul 16, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 16, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $400,304 in lobbying spend. A filing names 71 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Valerie Hoyle, the sponsor, reported $639,524 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- International Association of Fire Fighters — $380,304 on 2 filings
- National Audubon Society — $20,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (422 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Firefighters with Parkinson's gain federal compensation presumption” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr4453 Report an error
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