[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10552-10553]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



        APPROPRIATORS SHOULD FULLY FUND FIRE AND EMS DEPARTMENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, the numbers are in, and 
the results are overwhelming. This Congress for the first time in the 
history of America last year authorized and appropriated $100 million 
for the

[[Page 10553]]

American fire and emergency services community to meet their local 
needs. It was an historic action.
  Within a 30-day time period, from April 1 until May 2, the 32,000 
fire and EMS departments across this country had the opportunity of 
applying for matching funds to meet their local needs and to meet the 
national responsibilities being placed on them in our effort to prepare 
for an incident involving a weapon of mass destruction.
  Within that 30-day time period, there were 30,000 requests for funds 
from over 20,000 departments, from the smallest rural department in 
rural America, to the largest department in our largest city. They 
requested funds for breathing apparatus, for training, for new 
technology, for communication systems, for fire apparatus. The 
resultant 20,000 requests totaling 30,000 specific applications asked 
for $3 billion of assistance. We only appropriated $100 million.
  Madam Speaker, there will be a lot of very unhappy and disappointed 
fire and emergency services departments. But we have made an historic 
beginning, and I would encourage our colleagues to join together and 
request that we increase the funding for that grant program to $300 
million in this year's appropriation process so that we can continue to 
meet the need of our domestic defenders.
  Some would say this is too much money. Madam Speaker, local law 
enforcement officials across this country receive $4 billion a year 
from the Federal Government. While I support our local law enforcement, 
our fire and EMS personnel should certainly receive no less. $100 
million is a long way from $4 billion.
  So I say to our colleagues today as we understand the need that has 
now been documented for the first time, $3 billion in requests from 
every congressional district in this country. I would ask our 
colleagues in the House and the other body to join together and request 
the appropriators to exceed the President's request of $100 million and 
fully fund the authorized amount which this fiscal year is $300 
million.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to contact the appropriators and 
make the request to our good chairman, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Young), who was a tireless advocate last session, and the gentleman 
from New York (Mr. Walsh), the subcommittee chair, to include the fully 
authorized amount in the appropriation process.

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