NASHVILLE – A Tennessee legislative effort to require local governments to provide workers’ compensation benefits to Tennessee professional firefighters formally diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder failed to win approval as state lawmakers wrapped up their annual session last week.
Concerns voiced by lawmakers and local governments over the requirement as well as projections it would cost city and county governments more than $4.68 million annually helped tank the bill, named in honor of Cleveland city firefighter James “Dustin” Samples, according to a bill sponsor.
Samples suffered from PTSD. He took his life shortly before Christmas 2020 amid his continued struggles over work-related PTSD combined with the inability of his and his wife, Jennifer Samples, to continue paying for treatment that had been helping him, his wife said earlier this year.
House Health Subcommittee Chairman Bob Ramsey, R-Maryville, the bill’s House sponsor, said in a Chattanooga Times Free Press interview last week as the General Assembly was winding down its annual session that the Tennessee Professional Fire Fighters Association and its Cleveland Local 3748 hope to bring a re-tooled version of the bill back in 2023.