News-Record.com

Thursday's No. 2 editorial..

As 9/11 proved, heroes are made in a heartbeat.

If only we could thank them half as fast.

U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge had that in mind when he sponsored legislation in 2003 to benefit survivors of first responders who die from job-related stress. The bill passed overwhelmingly and was signed into law by President Bush.

But getting the Hometown Heroes Survivor Benefit Act to actually work has been another story altogether.

The law is designed to require survival benefits to families of law enforcement personnel and firefighters who die from strokes or heart attacks connected with their work. But thanks to foot-dragging within the Justice Department and added layers of paperwork, the benefits process has been slow and tedious.

The Justice Department admitted as much in its own report that found the department took close to three years to create rules for the new law. That forced families to wait for benefits to which they were legally entitled.

Once those rules finally had been established, the report found even more problems, among them

-- claims filed without the necessary documentation;

--requests for additional documentation when it wasn’t needed;

-- and a lack of any standards for the timeliness of internal reviews.

Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat, was irritated even further this week by revised rules for the program, which add paperwork and could reduce the number of workers who are eligible for benefits. One of the rule changes would provide benefits for officers who die during mandatory training exercises — but not during voluntary training.

What kind of reward is that for motivation and initiative?

“It was not the intent of Congress to have bereaved families jump through hoops to get a benefit they deserve,” Etheridge wrote in exasperation to Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

Indeed. For all the appreciation we say we feel for these vital workers and their families, how about showing them?