[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 36 (Tuesday, March 28, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H1473-H1474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUPPORT FIRE AND EMS COMMUNITY WITH AMENDMENT TO EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL
APPROPRIATIONS BILL
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Ose). Under a previous order of the
House, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for
15 minutes.
Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening in an
unanticipated move to rally the support of our colleagues on both sides
of the aisle and the constituents of our colleagues on both side of the
aisle who are involved in the Nation's fire and emergency services and
those who support those brave men and women who protect our
communities, our cities, and our counties all across America.
Mr. Speaker, there are 32,000 organized departments in this country,
85 percent of whom are totally volunteer, who every day across this
Nation, respond to every conceivable disaster that the American people
face, not just fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados, missing children,
problems in the community. They are there. Incidents involving chemical
plants, oil refineries, people who are there when there are problems on
our waters.
The Nation's 1.2 million men and women who serve as our domestic
defenders have an opportunity this week that they have not had in the
250 year history of this body and this country. Tomorrow, Mr. Speaker,
when the supplemental appropriation bill comes to the floor, I expect
that an amendment will be offered by myself, by the gentleman from
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith), the
chairman of the appropriate subcommittee from the Committee on Science,
by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews), by
[[Page H1474]]
the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell) who has a major piece of
legislation pending, all of us coming together, along with the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey), the Majority Leader, and the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the Majority Whip, to support the
first major comprehensive appropriation for the Nation's emergency
response community.
Mr. Speaker, I have been in this body for 14 years. Before coming to
this body, I was the mayor of my town; and before that, I was the
volunteer fire chief and spent a good part of my life working as a
volunteer fire fighter, fire instructor, trainer for 80 fire companies
as a volunteer in southeastern Pennsylvania.
It was 13 years ago that I helped organize what is today the largest
caucus in this body and the other body, and that is the Congressional
Fire and EMS Caucus. Our role has been to raise the awareness of these
brave Americans who every day of every year have protected our country
from domestic tragedies.
Mr. Speaker, there is no other group of people largely volunteer who,
each year, lose 100 of their members who are killed while responding to
disasters, because that is what happens in America every year. On
average, 100 fire and EMS personnel are wiped out either in fires, in
accidents, hazmat incidents, floods, tornados, responding to emergency
situations, who are just doing their job. There is no other profession
where 85 percent of the people are volunteers and yet 100 of them are
killed each year.
We have an opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to recognize these people on the
House floor tomorrow. Our bipartisan amendment will put forth $100
million of emergency supplemental funds to help these men and women
better prepare to serve their communities.
Now, a cynic might ask, why would the Federal Government want to help
what is basically a local responsibility? We are not trying to
federalize the fire service. But we are asking the fire and EMS people
across this country to do more and more every day.
We are asking them to respond to incidents of terrorism involving
chemical or biological weapons. We are asking them to respond to large
natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, and tornados. Yet the bulk
of the money to buy the equipment and do the training of these people
comes from chicken dinners, tag days, and suppers in the fire halls.
We have an opportunity tomorrow, Democrats and Republicans, to come
together with an overwhelming vote in support of our American heroes.
These brave men and women who, for 250 years, have protected America's
towns and cities, a unique aspect of this group, Mr. Speaker, is they
protect our inner city urban areas and they protect our rural farming
districts. They are all over America.
We have missed the boat. We created the AmeriCorps program, a great
idea to promote volunteerism. Do my colleagues know, Mr. Speaker, the
volunteer fire service cannot even qualify for the hundreds of millions
of dollars that AmeriCorps gets each year?
We support the law enforcement, the police departments in AmeriCorps,
in fact about $3 billion a year. We even use Federal funds to help buy
the police vests for the local police officers. But we have done
nothing for the fire and EMS community.
The President wants 100,000 new teachers. He wants 100,000 new police
officers, not a mention of the fire and EMS personnel departments and
people across America.
Tomorrow, Mr. Speaker, in this body, our colleagues can have a chance
to support the first major appropriation of real dollars to help these
brave men and women: $10 million to fully fund the rural fire
protection program, for small rural departments, $10 million for burn
research, and $80 million for a national grant program to be
competitively based, where every fire department in America can compete
for a dollar-for-dollar match for funds to provide communications,
training, equipment, to help them better protect their towns.
Finally, we will change the provision of one of the largest Federal
block grant programs to our cities and counties across America, the
Community Development Block Grant Program, to allow that money to be
used if the local leaders so choose for fire and EMS. That could mean
the availability of up to $4.8 billion this year of money already going
out to our cities and counties across America.
I would ask our colleagues, Mr. Speaker, to respond affirmatively. I
would ask our constituents all across America to make those phones ring
tomorrow morning from 8 o'clock on to make sure that all of our
colleagues are aware that it is time that this body step up and support
these brave American heroes, people who every year have fought to keep
our towns and our cities safe.
The supplemental bill is important. It will put more money into
defense. It will put more money into FEMA. But for the first time, we
have an opportunity to put money into those organizations that have
been there in each of our towns protecting our citizens. Each
congressional district has, on average, 80 fire and EMS departments,
ambulance organizations, organizations involving rescue and fire
departments. Tomorrow is our chance in this body to support that
legislation.
So, Mr. Speaker, in closing I ask our colleagues to support the
amendment that will be offered by myself, the gentleman from Maryland
(Mr. Hoyer), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell), the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews), the gentleman from Michigan
(Mr. Smith) with the support of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey)
and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the support of people like
the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle) and the gentleman from New
York (Mr. Boehlert), as we come together in a bipartisan message of
support for these brave and true American patriots, the men and women
we call our domestic defenders.
I urge our colleagues and our constituents again to make sure that we
hear that message loudly and clearly tomorrow. Get on the phone. Make
those calls. Be heard so that this government responds with a token
amount of money to allow these people to continue to serve America most
of them being volunteers.
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