Click here to watch video of Senator Clinton's Remarks.
Courtesy of the IAFF

Thank you very much, I am honored to be with you today and to be a partner and supporter of this great union that spans two nations and is growing globally, and to thank you for the work that you and your members do every single day. I want to thank Harold for his friendship and his leadership, I want to thank Vinny for also being with me and Harold in those early hours after 9/11. I want especially to welcome and thank all of the firefighters from New York who are here. I hesitate to name names because there are so many represented, but let me just say thank you to Kevin Gallagher, Charlie Morello, Mike McManus, Steve Cassidy and Pete Gorman. Dear friends all, with whom I have worked closely.

I know that some of the New York City delegates had to return home after yesterday’s tragic and fatal fire in the Bronx. Sadly, we lost Michael Reilly of Engine Company 75, a young rookie fireman who had already served with the United States Marines in Iraq. And I’m very sorry to announce that we just lost – earlier today – Lieutenant Howard Carpluk, a 20 year FDNY veteran. Thomas Auer of Battalion 17, John Grasso of Engine 92, and Wayne Walters of Engine 75 were also hurt. I know that from this great convention of firefighters our thoughts and our prayers go out to the families, friends and fellow firefighters. And if we may, President Schaitberger, can we have just a moment of silence in memory of the lives and service of Michael Reilly and Howard Carpluk. Thank you. God bless them, and God bless their memories.

I’m also pleased to be here, and I know that many of you have been to Toronto before but maybe some of our American delegates haven’t come to this great city. I just met the Mayor, David Miller, and I want to thank him and the people of Toronto for all the help they gave to New York after 9/11. And also I want to acknowledge the premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty.

The partnership between our two countries and indeed between provinces and cities not only in New York but across our nation, particularly along our border, has been instrumental in pulling together the best response that we can train for and be prepared for post 9/11. And it’s especially appropriate that you would be meeting here to further these bonds of fellowship and partnership. Because we do have- not only to remember those who do the work every single day, because as we were tragically reminded it is dangerous work, it is work that all too often demands the ultimate sacrifice, but now we have the additional responsibilities post 9/11 in both of our countries- to think hard about how we better equip and train and provide the resources necessary to those of you who are truly on the front lines of our homeland defense. I remember that meeting that Harold described. Meeting with Harold and Vinny the day after September 11th. And I remember very well their offer to me. They were kind enough to tell you that I offered to help in any way that I could, but they said to me ‘we will stand with New York, firefighters across our country and even across the border to the north will be there.’ And you were true to your word. The dedication of the firefighters, the EMT’s and the other first responders who died or were injured in the greatest rescue mission in the history of the world, has become a legend. I’m very proud of that record, I’m awed by that legend, but I am unsatisfied with what we’re doing to make sure it never happens again. Our job is not merely to honor the past, but to prepare for an uncertain future. And we have a lot of work ahead of us.

Together we stood up for the health of our first responders; the workers and volunteers who spent days and weeks and months at Ground Zero. Some of you came from around the country, suffered the same kind of physical problems that we are now seeing amongst our first responders, which is why I have sponsored legislation to make sure that we take care of not just those in New York but anyone who responded on 9/11 or who might respond in the future to any disaster, natural or man-made. Because the poisons that were breathed that day and all the days after have constricted the lungs, have caused other physical ailments, and now we believe are linked even to premature deaths.

We have an obligation to the men and women who go into harms way for us. Whether they serve in our military or they serve in our homeland defense as first responders, as firefighters, we have an obligation that doesn’t end with a photo-op or a speech, but continues until every single person and that person’s family is taken care of. And as Harold and some of you remember, my friends Steve Cassidy, Pete Gorman and others, it wasn’t easy. Within days after 9/11 I was saying ‘the air is not fit to breathe and there’s not enough equipment down at Ground Zero’, and basically our government said ‘don’t worry about it, the air is safe, just keep working.’ Well we didn’t have to wait long before we saw some of the effects, and together we worked to secure more than $100 million for medical screening and health monitoring. And then we got $125 million to make sure that those who had to retire early, those who had to go on disability, those who deserved workers compensation, would not be left out. We went back and forth to fight for the funding that a grateful nation should automatically offer to those who sacrificed so much.

But that is just the beginning, because what we have learned from 9/11, and what we learned again last year from Katrina, is that these massive disasters have long-term effects. Shortly after 9/11 I got a call from the FDNY, the medical personnel there, and they were telling me that all of a sudden firefighters from Oklahoma City who had never sought help before, arising out of the bombing of the federal building there, were coming forward and saying ‘you know, I need to talk to somebody or I’ve had this problem that I’ve never really gotten tended to.’ You know we’re dealing with disasters on a level that are really unprecedented. And so our response and our support for you and the resources that we provide to you must also be unprecedented.

I will continue to do whatever I can, working with you, working in New York, working with your international, to stand up and fight for the resources you need and the ongoing treatment and healthcare that is sometimes required.

When we saw the damage that had been done after 9/11, and then we saw the damage from Katrina, I joined in a bi-partisan bill to say that we had to do better. We couldn’t leave it to localities that were often overwhelmed by the other costs. We certainly couldn’t leave it to states which often were similarly unable to respond. There had to be a federal government response to protect, assess and monitor the health and safety of first responders exposed to harmful substances.

So we know the problem, now we just have to make sure we get the solution that is required. That’s one of the reasons why I was very pleased to be part of working to see the HELPS Retirees Act included in the recently passed pension bill. Tax credits for health insurance and long-term care insurance, for current and future retirees is part of the package that we should be ensuring for each of you. When you spend your career putting your life on the line the least we can do is make sure you have affordable, lasting health care when you retire. And in our country the costs keep going up, and the numbers of people who are uninsured keep going up, which is why it’s important that we tackle the big problem eventually but in the meantime we take care of you until we get to some overall solution. We also in America have to make sure that firefighters are guaranteed the right to organize and bargain collectively, just like everyone else. You know to me this is an issue of basic rights. You deserve the right to organize and bargain collectively so that you can have the working conditions and protect yourself insofar as possible against the risks that are inherent in your job. You know sometimes I hear from people that, well you know, firefighters can go months without having to respond to a fire or some other disaster. And I say, ‘yes, but when they have to respond would you change places? Would you have gone into that discount store in the Bronx that was on fire two days ago? What would you have done when the floor collapsed under you, trapping you and your fellow firefighters? Give me a break. It’s dangerous work and it deserves to have the full protection of the law and that’s what we should continue to fight for across America.

But we have to think hard about what we have accomplished in the last, now nearly five years since 9/11. We have, in America certainly, made progress, but I’m not satisfied. Earlier today I stood in Buffalo with the Mayor, the fire commissioner, a police captain and others from the fire department and the police department to call for increased homeland security funding for the city of Buffalo. Now I know we need funding across our country, but every expert who has studied this, including the 9/11 commission, has said we need to focus our resources on those places that are at highest risk. And yet there seems to be little logic to the decisions that are being made in Washington.

Now, our country has faced great challenges before and we have always risen to them. Sometimes it took a while to get ourselves organized, but once challenged we have never failed, and I believe that’s true today. But in order to succeed at home and abroad we have to have smart strategies and we have to make good decisions about where to put our money, where to put our resources and how to go after those who threaten our way of life.

We can go back in history and see many occasions in our past when, not just leaders but citizens, rose to whatever danger confronted them. I like to think of President Roosevelt in one of his fireside chats. The allies were already at war, ships carrying the American flag were being sunk, and President Roosevelt in his inimitable manner said, ‘Let us not ask ourselves whether the Americas should begin to defend themselves after the first attack, or the 5th attack, or the 10th attack, or the 20th attack; the time for active defense is now.’ We don’t have to give in to fear or intimidation. ‘The times call for clear heads and fearless hearts.’ That is the time we’re in today. We confront a new enemy and we confront a new kind of warfare. It is a warfare that is often not conducted by armies or air forces or navies but by insurgents, by criminal elements, by organized militias and death squads. So we have to confront these new conditions without fear and without allowing fear to paralyze or divide us. We have to respond with our intelligence, with our values and our resources. That means putting all divisions aside, getting rid of the partisan rhetoric and the blaming and the finger pointing. Instead, getting sensible, using our common sense to make sure we’re doing what we need to do.

This morning in Buffalo I pointed out that our Department of Homeland Security’s analysis of the Buffalo/Niagara region didn’t include Niagara Falls, didn’t include five international bridges including the peace bridge which has got the 2nd highest level traffic of any bridge across our border with Canada, didn’t include the more than 600 chemical and hazardous materials facilities in the region. What kind of sense does that make?

We need to be smart in how we plan for and respond to the threats we face. The reduction in funding for Homeland Security is directly related to the priorities in Washington, and I don’t think it makes sense. We have an obligation to prepare for the common defense, and that means putting it at the very top of the priority list in our government. Now we can’t protect ourselves against every threat, that’s not the way the world or life works. But I want to go to sleep every night thinking we’ve done everything humanly possible, and that we wake up in the morning and we think hard again.

And I’m grateful that this international association has been at the front lines of making suggestions. I don’t know how many of you saw the heartrending video that was made of firefighters along the Gulf Coast. If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it. Harold was nice enough to get me a copy. And put yourself into their position where you didn’t get adequate warning, your communication systems were down because we still don’t have interoperable communications, your command system was down, the help that you thought was coming from the state or federal government didn’t materialize for days. We’ve got to do better. And when disaster strikes people don’t call my office, they don’t call the Governor usually, they don’t call you know, the Senator or the Congressman, they call you. So I don’t think the money should be trickling down through state capitals and county offices until it finally gets to you and there’s not enough money there to do the job you know you need to do. I’ve advocated direct funding for first responders. Get the money where the people who will use it are.

And how much longer will we wait for a national system of interoperable communications. You know, we had so many problems on 9/11, they had the same problems with Katrina. People had never met each other, they couldn’t communicate with each other. I then have pushed for legislation to make this a national priority, to make sure we have somebody in the federal government in charge of working with you, working with your communities, to make sure that we do have a system of interoperable communication. And how much longer do we have to wait to have an entire national system for emergency 9-1-1 response that can track cell phones. Half of our country has it, but the other half doesn’t. Again we have passed legislation, but we haven’t funded it.

This is all part of what I see as a smart strategy. Give us the communication system, make sure people have the training and equipment and get the money where the rubber meets the road, where you have to go out there and face danger for the rest of us.

Now as we approach this 5th anniversary I am optimistic, but I am also realistic. We’ve had arrests recently on both sides of the boarder. We’ve seen the plot disrupted in Great Britain. I see the intelligence from around the world and I know that the extremists are still plotting and planning against our way of life in American and Canada. But they will lose. They will lose because we will deter and defeat them. They will lose because their ideas of violence and Nihilism are no match for ideas of freedom and democracy, but we should not lose any more lives by not being prepared to prevent, deter, and respond to whatever may happen in the days and months ahead. This is a long-term struggle. That’s why we need to have secure borders and ports and bridges and tunnels and rail systems and airports and every other means of communication or where people gather. But we have to do it in a way that doesn’t undermine our fundamental values. And that can be done. We can be smart about that too.

As I look back over the past five years it has been a privilege and an honor to represent New York. To stand with you and others who are the best our country has to offer. And I pledge my continuing support. But I also ask you to constantly ask the tough questions, raise the hard challenges, don’t accept the easy answers and hold every single person accountable for what they do and don’t do. It’s too dangerous for any other course. Five years from this 5th anniversary I hope that your international meeting you’re going to be able to look at each other and breathe a big sigh of relief. But the only way we’ll get there is having the right leadership in governments, in unions, in business, in every institution and having the right citizenship as well. People who will be part of their own defense, who will take seriously the challenges we confront and contribute to our eventual, inevitable success.

So thank you for standing up for safety, for security. Thank you for working side by side with so many of us to make sure that the recommendations about how to keep our countries safe and our way of life secure are implemented. Thank you too for strongly representing those who answer the call. As I traveled around my state and visited firehouses and met with firefighters I see the same determination and resoluteness from one end of New York to the other, and I am sure that is true across America and Canada. There isn’t any other group I’d rather stand with, because when we need you you’re there. No excuses, no hesitation.

When I think about the challenges of the past again, I remember how when we were attacked at Pearl Harbor we had two Aircraft Carriers left in the entire Naval Fleet of the United States of America. Within a year we had over 100. We were called upon not just to let somebody else do it, not just let the young Marine or the young soldier or the young sailor, airman or coastguardsman or not the young firefighter, police officer or EMT to go do it. We recognized that we were all in this together and we would support those who were standing up for us. Shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack in another fireside chat President Roosevelt again addressed the nation about the task at hand. ‘Never before,’ he said, ‘have we been called upon for such a prodigious effort. Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much.’ It feels something like that today as we pick up the paper or turn on the television and we see the conflicts, we see our enemies in videos in caves in Afghanistan or other undisclosed locations. We wonder whether we and our children will be safe, and of course there are those who, for political purposes, try to exploit our legitimate concerns. But we are stronger than that. And if we steel ourselves and we resolve to be united and to stand up for our values and our freedom then I am totally confident about the outcome. We will meet the challenge, and we will honor our values and when it is done we will say thank you to all of you for making it possible. Thank you and God bless you for what you do every single day.

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