Definitions and benefits in the public safety officer death benefit law expanded, and retroactive benefit awards provided.

HF 2797 expands Minnesota's public safety officer death benefit law to cover more circumstances where officers die while on duty. It adds heart attacks, strokes, or vascular ruptures sustained during high-stress emergency activities (like firefighting or rescue operations) to the definition of "killed in the line of duty," includes suicide linked to PTSD or within 45 days of a traumatic event, and covers deaths from specific infectious diseases like COVID-19 or tuberculosis. The law applies retroactively from February 1, 2020, allowing families to claim benefits for past deaths that now qualify under the expanded definitions. Families must file retroactive claims by July 1, 2027, for deaths occurring before that date.