Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the House on February 26, 2009, to establish a presumption that cases of certain types of cancer contracted by non-volunteer firefighters arose out of and in the course of employment for purposes of granting workers compensation benefits, unless there is evidence to the contrary, and unless the person is a consistent cigarette smoker

The vote was 96 in favor, 14 opposed and 0 not voting

(House Roll Call 137 at House Journal 0)

Click here to view bill details.

Rep. Elsenheimer, having reserved the right to explain his protest against the passage of the bill, made the following statement:

“Mr. Speaker and members of the House:

This is actually a bill which I could support, but where do the revenues to support this program come from? This state is bleeding $5 million dollars per work day, and the legislature is taking up bills to create new lines of expenditure. It’s unrealistic, and unfortunate. Let’s bring this bill up again when we have identified how we will pay for it.”

Rep. Agema, having reserved the right to explain his protest against the passage of the bill, made the following statement:

“Mr. Speaker and members of the House:

The question is how many others areas will this spill into. As a pilot, can I presume I got face cancer because I was flying above the ozone layers? There are too many jobs this will filter into. You can’t presume cause when about 50% of disease is genetic. There are too many factors in sickness to automatically presume the cause was your employment. Most firefighters wear their mask at all times when in dangerous areas. This is a special carve out and will be a lawyers dream .come true and raise the costs to our municipalities.”