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Fire

I have been a tireless advocate for our nation's fire and emergency personnel. As a former volunteer Fire Chief in my hometown of Marcus Hook, I was struck by the glaring lack of attention our nation's first responders were receiving in Washington when I arrived in Congress. Our 1.2 million firefighters are truly the backbone of our society. The overwhelming majority of them are volunteers serving in the noblest of caucuses to protect the lives and property in our communities. As a firefighter, I knew first-hand the challenges faced by our domestic heroes. They lacked funding, training and equipment. And they clearly lacked a voice in Congress to speak for their cause

In response, I formed the Congressional Fire and Emergency Services Caucus. Established in 1987, the Fire Caucus is the largest caucus in Congress with over 340 members from both the House and Senate. For almost 20 years, the Fire Caucus has provided a voice for our nation's first responders in Washington and transformed the fire service as a whole. As the Founder and Co-Chairman of the Caucus, I have provided leadership in Congress to increase the awareness of first responder issues and to enact legislation to provide our nation's firefighters with the funding and resources they desperately required.

Prior to 9/11, I led the effort to pass the Assistance to Firefighter's Grant Program (FIRE Act) that has provided over $3 billion in direct funding to local fire departments. Moreover, when the Administration threatened to eliminate the program in its early stages, I fought the Administration to preserve the program and prevailed.

In 2004, I included the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Firefighters Act of 2003 (SAFER Act of 2004) in the Defense Authorization bill, which Congress approved. The SAFER Act creates a grant program within the Department of Homeland Security to substantially increase the number of firefighters - both career and volunteer - in communities to meet industry minimum standards to provide adequate protection from all hazards including acts of terrorism. Congress authorized the program at $7.6 billion for seven years and it was my amendment to the 2005Homeland Security Appropriations Bill that provided the first $50 million in funding for the SAFER Act.

In addition to the Fire Act and the SAFER Act, I have also led the fight in Congress to:

Substantially increase funding to needy volunteer firefighters in rural areas and make volunteer firefighters eligible for funding under the AmeriCorps program,
Provide $2.1 billion in FY 2004 for Wildfire Management activities,
Establish a program to ensure the safety and performance of new firefighting technology,
Obtain passage of The Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act so that a public safety officer who suffers a fatal heart attack or stroke while on duty shall be presumed to have died in the line of duty,
Increase the Public Safety Officer Benefit by over 150%,
Establish a two-year, $30 million authorization for burn research programs [Don’t believe the program was ever funded],
Authorize $10 million in FY 2001 for Hepatitis C demonstration projects that address training, testing, and treatment,
Require the military to establish a program to share military technology with the fire and emergency services.

Following the tragic events of 9/11, a number of reports cited radio interoperability as a major problem that prevented firefighters from being alerted to a possible building collapse. That is when Congress suddenly took an interest in the issue. However, I have been working to improve communication systems for the fire service since 1995 following the Murrah Building bombing. I have advocated for legislation to set aside additional broadcast spectrum for first responders and requested the military to look at allocating some of their spectrum as well. We are close to an important victory that would give first responders 24 megahertz of spectrum, taking giant step forward to allowing first responders to communicate at large scale emergencies.

In the Seventh District, I have championed the case of the late-Christopher Kangas a 14 year-old junior firefighter of the Brookhaven Fire Company, who was killed in route to a fire emergency on May 4, 2002. The Department of Justice (DOJ) ruled that Christopher was not eligible for Public Safety Officer Benefits (PSOB) because he did not meet the statutory definition of a firefighter. In response, I introduced legislation that will prevent the DOJ from denying firefighter eligibility for PSOB status due to age or duty restrictions as long as the person is a designated member of the fire department in an official capacity. The legislation will apply retroactively to the date of Christopher Kangas' death and ensure that Christopher and the thousands of junior firefighters across the country will receive the recognition they deserve.

During my tenure in Congress, I have traveled to every state in the nation visiting with firefighters and emergency personnel. I have been at the sites of virtually every national disaster – from Hurricane Andrews and the first World Trade Center bombing to that same site days following 9/11. I traveled to New Orleans and Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina, bringing a plane-load of supplies for my fellow firefighters. My heart is with the fire service. It is who I am and what gives me the passion to fight the battles for our nation’s firefighters regardless of whether my battles are with the Republican leadership in Congress, the White House or the Democrats in Congress.