[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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