'Collier Bill' Would Extend Benefits To Slain Campus Police

BOSTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano has filed a bill in Congress named after slain MIT Officer Sean Collier that would extend federal benefits to campus police.

Collier was shot to death while on duty three days after the Marathon bombings. Investigators believe the brothers suspected in the bombings also killed Collier.

Capuano's bill would add campus police officers to the Department of Justice's Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program, which provides financial assistance to police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians catastrophically injured in the line of duty.

If they are killed, the program provides benefits to eligible family members.

Capuano's bill would also make the proposed change in the law retroactive to April 15, 2013, the day of the bombings.

Capuano is a former mayor of Somerville. Collier had hoped to become a Somerville police officer.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.