[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 18 (Wednesday, February 27, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H610-H611]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       LOCAL FIREFIGHTERS COULD FACE CHOICE BETWEEN TWO PASSIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I reluctantly rise to 
discuss an issue that troubles me greatly. For the past 16 years that I 
have served in this body I have tried to focus attention on the plight 
of the Nation's fire and emergency service providers.
  Across this country, we have fought for their interests. We have 
fought for the career and volunteer firefighters in 32,000 departments. 
We organized the largest caucus in the Congress. We have an annual 
dinner each April which brings all the focus together. We have had 
President Clinton, former President Bush and all of our major party 
leaders come together to support them.
  As we saw in the Washington Post 2 days ago, the good will we have 
developed is currently being undone by a resolution passed by the 
International Association of Fire Fighters, good friends of mine, 
supporters of mine, that tells their membership they can no longer 
volunteer in the course of serving the communities where they live. So 
a firefighter in the District of Columbia who lives in suburban 
Maryland or Virginia is no longer allowed on his own free time to serve 
the communities where he lives. If he wants to do that, he must give up 
his union card.
  Madam Speaker, this is like saying that teachers, and I was a teacher 
for 7 years, should withdraw from the teacher's association if they 
want to tutor poor kids on weekends or after school, or even teach 
Sunday school. It is like telling doctors that they should no longer 
serve in clinics on their own time or be dismissed from the AMA. It is 
like telling professional athletes they should no longer play in 
charity games, raising money for good causes, or coach our youth teams. 
It is like telling lawyers that they should not belong to the American 
Bar Association if they do pro bono work.
  Madam Speaker, one of the leaders, a paid IAFF leader and a member of 
the Rockville City Volunteer Fire Department, has estimated that 70 
percent of all career firefighters volunteer in the communities where 
they live. The IAFF has now come out and said they can no longer do 
that.
  I respectfully request our friends in the IAFF to reconsider this 
decision.

[[Page H611]]

 We will continue to support firefighters, career and volunteer. We 
will continue to fight for more funding to provide even for paid 
personnel where there are shortages. But this kind of a policy drives a 
wedge between career and volunteer fire and EMS people that is just, I 
think, unthinkable.
  In fact, one of the leaders of the IAFF said it well: ``Many of the 
smaller communities rely solely on volunteer stations and they stand to 
lose a lot. This is all about men and women who really just love being 
a firefighter. Volunteering on their days off, whether in their own 
county or nearby, keeps their skills fresh. This just unnecessarily 
drives a wedge between the careers and the volunteers, and that 
eventually hurts the public.''
  Madam Speaker, I was up at the World Trade Center 2 days after the 
disaster, and I saw thousands of firefighters from around the country 
working together with the New York City career firefighters. Does this 
mean that those career firefighters from other departments that went to 
New York City would lose their union cards if this were enforced 
because they were volunteering to help their brother firefighters in 
time of need?
  I plead with my friends in the IAFF, for the sake of your own 
members, change this policy, so that we all can work together for the 
good of America's domestic defenders.

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