September 29, 2010, Introduced by Rep. Haase and referred to the Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security.
A bill to authorize interstate mutual aid for certain
emergency responses; to provide for the recognition of certain
credentials of emergency responders from other states; and to
provide for certain civil immunity.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
"interstate mutual emergency aid act".
Sec. 2. As used is this act:
(a) "Emergency responder" means an individual who is required
to possess a license, certificate, permit, or other official
recognition for his or her expertise in a particular field or area
of knowledge and whose assistance is utilized or is desirable
during an emergency. Emergency responder includes, but is not
limited to, emergency medical services personnel; law enforcement
officers; physicians; nurses; mental health, veterinary, or other
public health practitioners; emergency management personnel; public
works personnel; and firefighters, including firefighters trained
in the areas of hazardous materials, specialized rescue,
extrication, water rescue, or other specialized area.
(b) "Mutual aid emergency" or "emergency" means an occurrence
or condition resulting in a situation that poses an immediate risk
to health, life, property, or the environment, where the governing
body having jurisdiction over the situation decides that the
situation exceeds its ability to render appropriate aid and that it
is in the public's best interest to request mutual aid from a
governmental jurisdiction or private entity in another state with
which the governing jurisdiction has a written mutual aid
agreement. Mutual aid emergency or emergency does not include a
situation that initially raises to the level of disaster or
emergency requiring a local or state of declaration of emergency or
disaster, unless that declaration occurs after the initial request
for mutual aid.
Sec. 3. In order to more adequately address emergencies that
extend or exceed a jurisdiction's emergency response capabilities,
either without rising to the level of a state or local declaration
of state of a disaster or emergency or in the initial stages of an
event which may later become a declared disaster or emergency, the
state or any of its departments and agencies, or a political
subdivision of the state, including, but not limited to, counties,
cities, villages, townships, special districts, and other units of
local government, may enter into mutual aid agreements with units
of government from another state that provide for coordination of
communications, training, and response to and stand-by for planned
events and emergency responses between the units of government.
When engaged in training, stand-by, and emergency response in
accordance with the mutual aid agreements, emergency responders
from outside this state shall be permitted to provide services
within this state in accordance with this act and the terms of the
mutual aid agreement. This act does not prohibit a private company
or its employees from participating in the provision of mutual aid,
if the participating political subdivision approves the
participation and the contract between the political subdivision
and the participating private company permits the participation.
Sec. 4. An emergency responder from a political jurisdiction
outside of this state who holds a license, certificate, or other
permit recognized or issued by another state shall be considered to
be licensed, certified, and permitted in this state to render aid
to meet the request for assistance, if the emergency responder is
acting within the scope of his or her license, certificate, or
permit and within what an equivalent license, certificate, or
permit from or recognized by this state would authorize.
Sec. 5. Any function performed under this act shall be
considered to have been for public and governmental purposes, and
all immunities from liability enjoyed by the political subdivisions
of this state and units of local government and their officers,
agents, and employees shall extend to the emergency responders from
another state when providing mutual aid or while engaged in
training and exercises pursuant to a written mutual aid agreement
authorized by this act.
Sec. 6. Emergency responders from outside this state, while
rendering mutual aid within this state pursuant to a mutual aid
agreement authorized by this act, remain employees and agents of
their respective employers and jurisdictions. Nothing in this act,
or any mutual aid agreement entered into pursuant to this act,
creates an employment relationship between the jurisdiction
requesting aid and the employees and agents of the jurisdiction
rendering aid. All pension, relief, disability, death benefits,
worker's compensation, and other benefits enjoyed by emergency
responders rendering emergency mutual aid shall extend to the
services they perform outside their respective jurisdictions as if
those services had been rendered in their own jurisdiction.
Sec. 7. This act does not limit, modify, or abridge the
emergency management compact entered into under 2001 PA 247, MCL
3.991 to 3.994, or the emergency management act, 1976 PA 390, MCL
30.401 to 30.421.