BATON ROUGE — Gov. Jeff Landry on Friday signed a bill into law that increases state-paid survivor benefits for firefighters and law enforcement officers. 

HB 979, authored by Rep. Jeff Wiley, increases benefits for qualifying deaths occurring after July 1, 2025, to $300,000 for beneficiaries of law enforcement and firefighters. The previous law capped the benefits at $250,000. 

An amendment by State Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter made the increase retroactive to July 2025.

The new law formally goes into effect on July 1, 2026.