DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA) — State Representative Brandun Schweizer (R-Danville) has taken the first step to expand protections and incentives for volunteer first responders.

Schweizer filed two bills to help them. The first bill — HB 1353 — amends the Volunteer Emergency Worker Protection Act. It works to ensure that volunteer firefighters are not penalized when they need to be absent from their full-time job for mandatory trainings, or when they need to be absent for an emergency.

This legislation also amends the Volunteer Emergency Worker Protection Act by:

• Adding “participating in required training needed to be a first responder” to reasons why an employee who is also a first responder cannot be terminated or fired.
• Includes that employers cannot force employees who are also first responders to take vacation or compensatory time to respond to an emergency or participate in training.
• Provides that the Act does not apply to any employer that is a municipality with a population of 15,000 or more, making the change from 7,500 or more.

Schweizer’s second bill is HB 1386. It works to amend the Illinois Income Tax Act by:

• Increasing the amount of credit for volunteer emergency workers per taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and beginning before January 1, 2029, from $500 to $1,000 per eligible individual.
• Increases the aggregate amount of the volunteer emergency worker credits to $6,000,000 from $5,000,000 per year starting in 2026.

“In rural Illinois, many fire and EMS departments do not have the luxury of full-time crews and rely on the selflessness of volunteer first responders who hold other jobs,” Schweizer said. “Without volunteer first responders, many small municipalities would not have departments or crews and would need to rely on the nearest hospital or other emergency service, which for some towns, is too long to wait in an emergency. My bills seek to change how volunteer first responders are protected and incentivized so that small municipalities can continue to have volunteer fire and EMS departments.”

HB 1386 has been assigned to the House Revenue and Finance Committee, and a hearing is scheduled for this week in the Income Tax Subcommittee. Schweizer said that HB 1353 awaits further action.

If you have additional questions about either bill, you can call Schweizer’s office at (217) 477-0104 or visit his website.