[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21138-21139]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            FIRST RESPONDERS

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, we ask a great deal from our first 
responders, from firefighters, and from police officers to keep our 
neighborhoods safe from violence and drugs. We ask them to put their 
lives on the line, to save people from burning buildings, to track down 
armed criminals. We ask and they give each day and each night. That is 
why we cannot just honor them through parades, memorials, speeches on 
the Senate floor, showing up at various kinds of festivals, but we 
honor them by the priorities we set in our Federal Government, in State 
legislatures in Santa Fe and Columbus and Atlanta, in city halls, and 
in county courthouses.
  Earlier this year, Ohioans overwhelmingly rejected issue 2, which 
would have curtailed the ability of first responders, firefighters, and 
police officers not just to organize and bargain collectively for their 
wages and their benefits but, much more broadly than that, to have them 
sit down and negotiate with their employers, with cities, with 
counties, with the State, and with taxpayers for safety equipment and 
adequate staffing.
  This was a victory for them. The defeat of issue 2 was a victory for 
hard-working men and women in Ohio. It was the only time in American 
history when the issue of collective bargaining was on a State ballot 
for a statewide vote, and voters voted more than three-fifths--61 
percent to 39 percent--to preserve collective bargain rates. Again, 
collective bargaining not just for themselves in terms of wages and 
benefits but collective bargaining for police officers' safety vests; 
for firefighters to have the right kind of safety equipment; for 
teachers organizing and bargaining collectively at the negotiating 
table for class size. It was way more than about them and that is why 
the voters of Ohio, in such a resounding number, voted to preserve 
collective bargaining and what it meant to public employees and what it 
meant to our way of life for those who are not public employees, and 
that is at the State level.
  At the Federal level we must continue to fight to ensure these brave 
public servants have the resources necessary to safely perform their 
jobs. That is because so many give the ultimate sacrifice. In the last 
10 years, 47 law enforcement officials representing 35 Ohio agencies 
were killed while on duty. Forty-seven law enforcement officials were 
killed while on duty just in a decade.
  According to the FBI, 48 law enforcement officials across the country 
were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2009. More than 57,000 
law enforcement officials were assaulted while performing their duties.
  This past May during National Police Week, I attended a Greater 
Cleveland Police Officer Memorial service in Huntington Park in 
Cleveland. During the service, I met Sara Winfield of Marysville, OH. 
Sara's husband Bradley Winfield was a deputy in the Marion County 
Sheriff's Department, a north central community, when he was shot and 
killed while on duty. In her grief, this widow, with two young sons to 
care for, has become an advocate ensuring that those who protect us are 
protected themselves. That is why I cosponsored legislation introduced 
by Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin that would create a national blue alert 
system aimed at apprehending criminals who injure or kill law 
enforcement officials.
  Modeled after the Amber Alert System used to find missing children, 
the blue alert system would disseminate critical information about 
suspected criminals to other law enforcement agencies, the public, and 
the media. When someone has gunned down a police officer, police 
departments all over the region, the State, and the country need to 
know about it. Blue alerts would be broadcast to local media and on 
messaging signs. It would include a detailed description of the 
suspect, the vehicle, and other identifying information. It would 
encourage State and local governments to develop additional protocols 
to help apprehend suspects.
  Eleven States already have such a system, but if it is only on the 
State level and the perpetrator who killed the police officer escapes 
to another State that doesn't have it, it doesn't work so well. That is 
why Senator Cardin's national blue alert bill is so important.
  Ohio doesn't have this. I am encouraged that the Ohio Senate recently 
passed a version of this law. Again, it

[[Page 21139]]

needs to be national so that it goes across State lines, and we can 
obviously do that as police departments are talking to each other more 
than they ever have through technology.
  I spoke to police chiefs from across Ohio like my city of Lorain, OH. 
Cel Rivera, the chief there, said the blue alert system would be a 
critical resource to track down criminals and to protect law 
enforcement. It would be made possible with existing community-oriented 
policing services such as, the COPS Program funded by the Department of 
Justice.
  I remember 15, 18 years ago when the COPS Program began with 
President Clinton and the Congress in the 1990s. It made such a 
difference in helping local communities, small towns, big cities, rural 
areas, suburbs, to be able to staff up in a better way with community 
police officers.
  It is these types of Federal investments that are so critical for 
communities facing significant budget shortfalls. Too many communities 
are forced to make cutbacks in essential services reducing staff size 
and scaling back investments on safety equipment. These choices are 
difficult, and they are made with great reluctance. That is why Federal 
grants such as the staffing for adequate fire and emergency response, 
so-called SAFER grants, or the assistance for the firefighters grant 
are critical to help communities hire more firefighters as well as 
recruit and retain first responders. The omnibus bill we are 
considering now will provide much needed investments that will help 
communities do that.
  While I fight for stronger investments, it is clear every little bit 
helps. Earlier this week the Chillicothe Fire Department received a 
funded grant through the AFG Program. It follows the SAFER grant that 
not only helped hire personnel, it saves lives. Fire Chief Steve 
Gallacher, whom I have spoken with prior to this, was off duty when he 
experienced a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot to the lung. Without a 
grant that kept his neighborhood firehouse open or without the medic 
who was hired because of the AFG grant, Chief Gallagher says he would 
have died.
  These Federal investments literally helped to save Chief Gallacher's 
life. According to him, 40 percent of deaths among firefighters occur 
due to cardiac arrest. He wrote to me:

       When I helped write the grant application, I knew that it 
     would save lives. But I never imagined that one of those 
     lives would be my own.

  With reduced tax revenues, with the increased need of vital public 
services such as fire and police, it is critical we help our 
communities carry out the most basic and lifesaving duties. We can keep 
first responders and firefighters and officials on the job.
  We can establish an alert system to warn us when criminals seek to 
harm law enforcement officials. These are bipartisan actions that can 
help communities across Ohio and throughout the Nation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brown of Ohio). The Senator from Florida.

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