It is a fact that firefighters get cancer and die of cancer at a higher rate than the rest of us — 14% higher. Study after study shows that job-related cancer is the number one killer of firefighters.
It is a fact that no fewer than 45 states have addressed this issue by passing 
laws that provide additional cancer coverage or health benefits for them.
It is a fact that a bill to extend cancer coverage for firefighters has sailed through and is certain to pass in the Florida Senate and has a whopping 82 sponsors in the House. That’s two thirds of the membership — more bipartisan support than any other bill this year, or perhaps any year ever, practically guaranteeing passage.
But Rep. Jose Oliva, as the Republican Speaker of the House, is holding the bill hostage, refusing to send it to committee or take it to the floor. And it’s not because he is too busy trying to arm teachers in our schools. Or because he is concerned about the potential impact to municipal government budgets. This legislature is not shy about passing unfunded mandates.
Oliva gave some lame excuse about home rule. “This is an issue best dealt with 
at the county level as each department faces varying levels of danger and exposure and counties are best equipped to tailor benefits to need within available resources,” he said in a statement.
But that is BS. There is no difference in levels of danger from municipality to municipality, which, by the way, have multi-agency agreements to work together. There is no difference in levels of danger from state to state.
“This is something that didn’t discriminate along county lines,” said Sen. Anitere Flores, the sponsor in the Senate.
Read related: GOP gets desperate in Hialeah senate race against David Perez
The fact is Oliva won’t move the House bill to punish firefighters statewide for supporting one of their own, Coral Gables Firefighter David Perez, against former State Rep. Manny Diaz, Jr. in the 2018 senatorial race that Diaz eventually won.
Former State Rep. Frank Artiles — who is close to Oliva and has been a 
staple in his office even before he gets the green light to lobby next week — basically threatened as much on Facebook during the campaign.
“Good luck on your cancer presumption bill next year… I see a 4 stop bill in your near future,” wrote Artiles — who was forced to resign in 2017 after he made some very racist statements in a drunken rant — on a David Perez Facebook post.
If that’s not proof that this is political payback, Ladra doesn’t know what is.
Artiles has a grudge against firefighters. He basically ranted to Ladra about them during Dade Days in 2013.
And yes, he had a couple of drinks in him.
“Their jobs are ridiculous. They hardly fight fires. They work 24 hours on and 48 off,” he told Ladra outside a bar in Tallahassee. We were standing alongside then State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz and former 
State Rep. Robert Asencio, who was there in his pre-elected role as president of Florida Public Employees Partnership. When Asencio and Ladra asked for proof of his allegations, Artiles admitted his real reason for the hate: Firefighters unions had mailed six mailers against Central Florida Republicans that year. “They went after my boys,” he said.
Read related: Tales from Tallahassee — quick observations from Dade Days
House Bill 857 would require municipal governments to provide full cancer coverage, including disability and death benefits, to firefighters who meet a 
certain criteria, like being non-smokers and on the job for at least five years. Instead of workman’s comp, firefighters who are diagnosed with any of several specific cancers in the bill would get a lump sum one-time $25,000 payment, money that can help their families pay for the healthcare and keep their homes.
Again, 45 states have adopted similar laws. That’s 45 out of 50, indicating that it is the right way to go.
Supporters say the measure is necessary to account for the increased risk of cancer due to not only smoke inhalation but exposure to carcinogens and burning toxic substances in building materials, such as asbestos. All those boots on the state capitol steps are from firefighters who are sick or have died of cancer.
Critics, which include the League of Cities, say it forces an unfunded mandate on municipalities that are already stretched thin.
But the truth is the $5 million estimated impact it would statewide is a drop in the bucket in Florida, where, just last year, the legislature approved $147.5 million worth of budget turkeys, otherwise known as individual appropriations that circumvent the thorough and thoughtful committee and budget process, most of the time for legislator’s pet projects.
The truth is this bill’s blockage has nothing to do with the budget. This is nothing more than political payback. At its ugliest.
Oliva hasn’t even had the courtesy to respond to the firefighters who call him or the relatives that have traveled to Tallahassee to advocate for the bill. Juan Garcia, father of Ralf Garcia — a Miami Fire firefighter paramedic (photo, right) who died in 2015 of brain cancer at the age of 28 — wrote Oliva a personal letter that was hand-delivered by Omar Blanco, president of the Miami-Dade firefighters union two weeks ago. Y nada. ¡Que descaro!
All the firefighters and their families want is for the merits of the bill to be discussed by the members of the House and not decided upon by one man who has made himself God in this case.
“We just want an opportunity to present our situation,” said Claudine Buzzo, a Miami-Dade firefighter diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2016, who was out of work for four months to get treatment.
“He is not even allowing us to be heard and that’s what’s baffling,” Buzzo told CBS4’s Jim DeFede on Facing South Florida. “We don’t know what the reason is. He won’t even speak with us.”
Yeah, we know why.
Call Oliva today and demand that House Bill 857 be heard. Skip the office number. Call him on his cellphone at 305-761-6144. Text him. Tell him to put political payback aside and do the right thing.
Jose Oliva holds firefighter cancer bill hostage for political payback added by Ladra on
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