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1    AN ACT concerning local government.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
5Interstate Mutual Emergency Aid Act.
 
6    Section 5. Definitions. As used in this Act:
7    (a) "Emergency responder" includes emergency medical
8services personnel and firefighters, including firefighters
9trained in the areas of hazardous materials, specialized
10rescue, extrication, water rescue, and other specialized
11areas.
12    (b) "Mutual aid emergency" or "emergency" means an
13occurrence or condition resulting in a situation that poses an
14immediate risk to health, life, property, or the environment,
15where the governmental entity having jurisdiction over the
16situation determines (i) that the situation exceeds its ability
17to render appropriate aid and (ii) that it is in the public's
18best interest to request mutual aid from an out-of-state entity
19with whom the governmental entity has a written mutual aid
20agreement. "Mutual aid emergency" or "emergency" does not
21include a situation that initially rises to the level of
22disaster or emergency requiring a state or local declaration of
23a state of emergency, unless that declaration occurs after the

 

 

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1initial request for mutual aid has been made.
2    (c) "Training exercises" means necessary advance actions
3taken by emergency responders pursuant to a mutual aid
4agreement in order to prepare to more adequately address a
5potential mutual aid emergency.
 
6    Section 10. Mutual aid agreements. In order to more
7adequately address emergencies that extend or exceed a
8jurisdiction's emergency response capabilities, either without
9rising to the level of a state or local declaration of a state
10of emergency, or in the initial stages of an event which may
11later become a declared emergency, a political subdivision of
12this State, including a county, city, village, township, or
13other unit of local government, or any combination thereof, may
14enter into a mutual aid agreement with one or more units of
15government from another state. The mutual aid agreement may
16provide for coordination of communications, staging, training,
17and response to planned and unplanned events which a local
18jurisdiction has determined exceed, or are likely to exceed,
19its emergency response capabilities. When engaged in training,
20staging, and emergency response in accordance with the mutual
21aid agreements, emergency responders from outside of this State
22are permitted to provide services within this State in
23accordance with this Act and the terms of the mutual aid
24agreement.
 

 

 

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1    Section 15. Licenses, certifications, and permits. An
2emergency responder from outside this State who holds a
3license, certificate, or other permit recognized or issued by
4another state shall be deemed licensed, certified, and
5permitted to render mutual aid during a mutual aid emergency
6within this State pursuant to a mutual aid agreement authorized
7by this Act, if the emergency responder is (i) acting within
8the scope of his or her license, certificate, or permit and
9within the scope of what an equivalent license, certificate, or
10permit from or recognized by this State would authorize and
11(ii) acting pursuant to a request for mutual aid made pursuant
12to a mutual aid agreement authorized by this Act.
 
13    Section 20. Governmental functions; liability; emergency
14responders. Any function performed by an emergency responder
15that is (i) acting within the scope of his or her license,
16certificate, or permit and within the scope of what an
17equivalent license, certificate, or permit recognized by this
18State would authorize and (ii) pursuant to a mutual aid
19agreement authorized by this Act shall be deemed to have been
20for public and governmental purposes, and all liabilities and
21immunities from liability applicable to this State's political
22subdivisions and their officers and employees shall extend to
23the emergency responders from another state while providing
24mutual aid during a mutual aid emergency or while engaged in
25training exercises pursuant to a written mutual aid agreement

 

 

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1authorized by this Act. This Section shall not provide greater
2immunities to emergency responders from outside of this State
3than those immunities provided to emergency responders with the
4equivalent license, certificate, or permit in this State. This
5Section shall only apply to causes of action accruing on or
6after the effective date of this Act.
 
7    Section 25. Employee benefits. Emergency responders from
8outside this State, while rendering mutual aid within this
9State pursuant to a mutual aid agreement authorized by this
10Act, remain employees and agents of their respective employers
11and jurisdictions. Nothing in this Act, or any mutual aid
12agreement entered into pursuant to this Act, creates an
13employment relationship between the jurisdiction requesting
14aid and the employees and agents of the jurisdiction rendering
15aid. All pension, relief, disability, death benefits, workers'
16compensation, and other benefits enjoyed by emergency
17responders rendering emergency mutual aid shall extend to the
18services they perform outside their respective jurisdictions
19as if those services had been rendered in their own
20jurisdiction.
 
21    Section 30. Limitations. This Act does not limit, modify,
22or abridge the emergency management compact entered into under
23the Emergency Management Assistance Compact Act.
 
24    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon

 

 

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1becoming law.