Provides five hundred employment slots for first responders who performed their duties in the area of the September eleventh, two thousand one terrorist attacks in the weeks and months thereafter and suffered a service-related disability as a result of being exposed to toxins.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
10370
IN SENATE
May 15, 2026
___________
Introduced by Sen. RHOADS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Veterans, Homeland Securi-
ty and Military Affairs
AN ACT to amend the civil service law, in relation to creating a special
hiring class for first responders who suffered a disability as a
result of the September eleventh, two thousand one terrorist attacks
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The civil service law is amended by adding a new section
2 55-d to read as follows:
3 § 55-d. Employment of first responders who suffered a service rated
4 disability related to the September eleventh, two thousand one terrorist
5 attacks. 1. The commission may determine up to five hundred positions
6 with duties such as can be performed by first responders who performed
7 such first responder's duties in the area of the September eleventh, two
8 thousand one terrorist attacks, otherwise known as the exposure zone,
9 and suffered a service rated disability as a result of being exposed to
10 the toxins in the weeks and months thereafter and who are found other-
11 wise qualified to perform satisfactorily the duties of any such posi-
12 tion. Positions designated to be filled pursuant to this section may be
13 filled on a full-time or part-time basis. Upon such determination, said
14 positions shall be classified in the noncompetitive class, by persons
15 who establish by appropriate documentary evidence that such first
16 responder suffered a service rated disability as a result of being
17 exposed to toxins in the weeks and months thereafter in the area, other-
18 wise known as the exposure zone, of the September eleventh, two thousand
19 one terrorist attacks. The number of persons appointed pursuant to this
20 section shall not exceed five hundred.
21 2. Those employees hired under subdivision one of this section, shall
22 be afforded the same opportunity to take promotional examinations as
23 provided to employees in the competitive class.
24 3. When posting jobs that fall under the provisions of this section,
25 all state agencies shall prominently identify on such posting that such
26 job is "55-d Eligible".
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15476-03-6
S. 10370 2
1 4. For the purposes of this section, the term "exposure zone" shall
2 mean the area in Manhattan south of the line that runs along Canal
3 Street from the Hudson River to the intersection of Canal Street and
4 East Broadway, north on East Broadway to Clinton Street, and east on
5 Clinton Street to the East River; and any area related to or along the
6 routes of debris removal, such as barges and the Fresh Kills landfill.
7 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
