Tax break for volunteer firefighters and EMTs—finally recognizing unpaid heroes
H.R. 5905 — Helping Our Heroes Act · Filed by Robert Bresnahan (R-PA) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Nov 4, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill allows volunteer firefighters, emergency medical personnel, and rescue workers to claim a tax deduction for their service. Each hour of qualified volunteer work is valued at $20 for tax purposes, up to 300 hours per year (maximum $6,000 deduction annually). The deduction is available even to taxpayers who do not itemize deductions, and the $20 hourly value adjusts for inflation after 2026. Members of Congress are explicitly excluded from claiming this deduction.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a tax deduction for volunteer emergency service. It is a straightforward incentive designed to recognize and encourage unpaid civic contribution, with no hidden riders or private beneficiaries.
What the text implies
- The $20/hour valuation is fixed until 2026, then indexed to inflation; early years may undervalue service relative to actual opportunity cost or market wage for paid emergency personnel.
- Deduction is capped at 300 hours/year (~$6,000), which may not fully offset the economic sacrifice of volunteer responders in high-call-volume jurisdictions.
- Verification mechanism is delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury; implementation details (proof of service, eligible organizations) are not specified in the bill and may create compliance friction.
- Exclusion of Members of Congress from the deduction is explicit and unusual—suggests awareness that the provision could be abused if available to sitting officeholders, but raises questions about whether other elected officials (state/local) are also excluded.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Volunteer firefighters and emergency responders provide critical public services without compensation; this deduction recognizes and incentivizes that sacrifice by reducing their tax burden. The benefit flows directly to individuals performing essential civic work, with no private-sector capture or corporate giveaway.
Who stands to gain
- volunteer firefighters and emergency medical personnel (individual tax filers)
Named in the bill
Internal Revenue Code § 170, Internal Revenue Code § 63(b), volunteer firefighters, emergency medical personnel, rescue services, civil air patrol, search and rescue services, Members of Congress
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 4 Democrats, 2 Republicans.
- Nov 4, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Nov 4, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $10,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 31 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 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Robert Bresnahan, the sponsor, reported $1,457,044 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Volunteer Fire Council — $10,000 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 (3,431 characters) on Sep 26, 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 Jun 2026 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.
“Tax break for volunteer firefighters and EMTs—finally recognizing unpaid heroes” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr5905 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.