WASHINGTON– Last Friday, the Department of the Treasury wrote a blog post announcing that volunteer firefighters and emergency responders would not be subject to the Employer Mandate tax penalty under the Affordable Care Act.  The blog post was released less than 48 hours after House Republicans and Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (KS-02) spoke on the House Floor in support of H.R. 3685, the Protecting Volunteer Firefighters & Emergency Responders Act.  Congresswoman Jenkins released the following statement in response to the Administration’s post:

“I have spent significant time on the House Floor discussing the unintended consequences of the President’s healthcare law, and last week I pressed for action on a mandate in the law that would have jeopardized and penalized the status of our fire departments and the communities they serve. While I would have preferred this to not have been an issue in the first place, I am pleased the Administration listened to protect our volunteer firefighters.

“My father served as a Kansas State Fire Marshall for many years, and as anyone from a tight-knit community like Holton, Kansas knows, folks see it as a civic duty to pitch in where help is needed. I will continue to fight back against this broken law piece by piece until it is replaced with a patient-focused alternative that will actually help hardworking American families.”

Note:In Kansas alone, there are 550 volunteer fire departments staffed by 13,000 volunteer firefighters. Watch Congresswoman Jenkins Floor speech as a cosponsor of H.R. 3685, the Protecting Volunteer Firefighters & Emergency Responders Act, here.

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