First responder families get wider tax break on death benefits
S. 4497 — Tax Relief for First Responder Beneficiaries Act · Filed by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced May 12, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill expands tax-free death benefits for public safety officers' families by broadening who qualifies as a beneficiary under two tax code sections. It changes 'surviving dependents' to 'surviving beneficiaries' in one rule and expands 'a child' to include 'a child or a beneficiary of any life insurance policy or benefit plan' in another, making the tax exclusion available to a wider circle of people named in officers' policies or plans. The changes apply retroactively to 2023 and later.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a targeted tax exclusion expansion for death benefits paid to families of public safety officers. It is a straightforward tax-relief measure with no hidden riders or unrelated provisions.
What the text implies
- Retroactive application to 2023 may trigger amended-return claims and refunds for families who already paid tax on these benefits in prior years, creating administrative burden for IRS and potential windfall for some beneficiaries.
- Expansion to 'any beneficiary of any life insurance policy or benefit plan' is broader than traditional dependent definitions and may include non-family members, trusts, or entities named in policies—creating potential tax-planning opportunities.
- The bill does not specify whether the expanded beneficiary class applies only to policies purchased after enactment or retroactively to all existing policies, creating ambiguity in implementation.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Families of deceased public safety officers receive tax-free death benefits without reduction in taxable income, lowering their tax burden during grief and financial hardship. The expansion to non-dependent beneficiaries (e.g., named life-insurance beneficiaries, adult children, or other designated parties) ensures that officers' intended beneficiaries receive the full benefit without tax erosion.
Who stands to gain
- families of deceased public safety officers
- named beneficiaries of officers' life insurance policies
Named in the bill
Internal Revenue Code of 1986, IRC §104(a)(6), IRC §101(h)(1), public safety officers, surviving beneficiaries, life insurance policies
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- May 12, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- May 12, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
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 $40,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 18 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.
Kirsten Gillibrand, the sponsor, reported $172,178 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Sergeants Benevolent Association of New York City — $40,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 10, 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 (916 characters) on Jul 5, 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 10, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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