Segment 2 Of 2     Previous Hearing Segment(1)

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FIRE GRANTS: H.R. 1168, H.R. 3155, AND THE ADMINISTRATION'S PROPOSAL FOR ASSISTANCE TO FIREMEN

Wednesday, April 12, 2000
House of Representatives, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Emergency Management, Washington, D.C.

    The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:00 p.m. in room 2167, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Tillie K. Fowler [chairwoman of the subcommittee] presiding.

    Mrs. FOWLER. The Subcommittee will come to order.
    We'd like to start on time and end on time. My Ranking Member, Congressman Traficant, is tied up on the Floor right now, but he sent me word for us to go ahead and get started, particularly when we have so many members who are here waiting. So we want to go ahead and get this meeting underway.
    I also want to note that we've been informed that some time between 3:00 and 5:00, we're going to have an hour's worth of votes. So I'm really going to try to get this meeting moving along and make it run fast. So I'm going to not ask any of my questions of the members who are here, in the interest of both their time and ours. We'll submit some, though, for the record.
    I want to welcome my colleague, Ms. Berkley, here also this afternoon.
    I want to thank all the witnesses who are appearing today. This is a very important hearing on proposals for Federal assistance to firefighters. These proposals are aimed at protecting the public and our firefighters against fires and other life threatening hazards. Recent statistics show that fires kill 4,000 civilians every year, and injure 25,000 more in the fire service. In the fire service, approximately 100 are killed every year and 90,000 injured.
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    The 1.2 million men and women across the country who serve to protect life and property put their lives on the line every day, and deserve our full support. I see many of them out in the audience today, and they need to know, they do have our full support.
    In my own district in Florida, wildfires have been a chronic problem. Our first line of defense are the local firefighters who have served tirelessly to preserve and protect the public safety. To all of you in the fire service, we do salute you for your service to our country.
    We have several proposals that are before us today with varying funding levels for a new Federal spending program. Since Federal spending is constrained, it's prudent that Congress determine through these hearings the actual needs of the fire service. And this is a hearing that is the beginning of that process.
    But before we begin, I want to congratulate the gentleman from Pennsylvania, I don't think he's made it here yet, Mr. Weldon, for his success in adding $100 million to the fiscal year 2000 emergency supplemental appropriation for grants to fire departments. This was passed by an overwhelming majority in the House. This is really an unprecedented action by the House and shows a tremendous support in the House for the firefighters of this country.
    So I'm hoping we can add this in the Senate to one of their bills. So I want to urge all of you out in the audience, let the Senators know you need to get $100 million added to the appropriate bill in the Senate.
    So look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses and working together in support of the fire services.
    I'd like now to recognize Ms. Berkley, if she has an opening statement.
    Ms. BERKLEY. Thank you, Chairwoman Fowler. I'm generally accustomed to sitting in the last row, last seat over there. It's nice to be in the nosebleed section.
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    Chairwoman Fowler, thank you for calling this important hearing on the establishment of a grant program for fire and emergency services. We are here today to hear about fire safety and emergency services grant program proposals. I'd like to welcome and acknowledge all of our colleagues that are here and thank Congressman Bill Pascrell for requesting this hearing.
    I am a proud co-sponsor of the Fire Bill, which would establish a Federal grant program to protect the health and public safety of firefighters and the public. I'd also like to commend Congressman Curt Weldon, the founder of the Congressional Fire Services Institute and long-time leader on these issues.
    At that point, I'll turn this back over to you.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Ms. Berkley.
    If there are no further opening statements, then I would like to call today's first panel. This panel consists of several distinguished members of Congress who are to be commended for their efforts in support of the fire service.
    We have with us today Congressman Bill Pascrell. I understand Congressman Curt Weldon is joining us. Congressman Nick Smith, Congressman George Gekas will be joining us, and Congressman Steny Hoyer is here.
    And from the other body, we are very pleased to have Senator Mike DeWine and Senator Christopher Dodd.
    Gentlemen, before we proceed with your testimony, it is standard procedure here in this Committee to swear every witness in. So if you will stand and raise your right hand.
    Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
    [All witnesses respond in the affirmative.]
    Mrs. FOWLER. I think this is a very easy one today. But that's standard procedure here.
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    It is my understanding that the Senators want to go after Congressman Pascrell. Because I had intended to start with our two Senators. Is that my understanding? OK, well, then Congressman Pascrell, if you would start, and then I will go the Senators.
TESTIMONY OF HON. BILL PASCRELL, JR., A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM NEW JERSEY; HON. CURT WELDON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM PENNSYLVANIA; HON. GEORGE GEKAS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM PENNSYLVANIA; HON. NICK SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM MICHIGAN; HON. STENY H. HOYER, REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM MARYLAND; HON. MIKE DEWINE, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM OHIO; AND HON. CHRISTOPHER DODD, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM CONNECTICUT

    Mr. PASCRELL. Thank you, Chairwoman Fowler, and good afternoon to my colleagues. Before I begin my testimony, I'd like to take a minute to publicly thank the Chairwoman for her work over the past days and weeks. She has accommodated requests that were made and requests of other members of Congress regarding all aspects of today's hearing.
    This day is very important to a great number of people. I thank my colleague from Florida for her patience, for the bipartisan way in which she has brought us all here this afternoon. We have another room of people upstairs in room 2253.
    I want to thank Chairman Shuster for his work in making this hearing possible, and Ranking Members Oberstar and Traficant, for their strong, unwavering support. Much has gone into getting us to this day. Many individuals have worked tirelessly to build support for this proposal I'm presenting to you here, H.R. 1168, known as the Fire Bill. I'm extremely grateful and proud of the support we've received.
    Let me be very clear from the outset, this is not a small initiative. It is the first of its kind. It does nothing short of change the way in which we view public safety in this country. That was the intention. That is what it stands for. The Fire Bill says that it is time the Congress of the United States make a real commitment to those who make the ultimate commitment to us every single day. That it is time we stop the lip service to our firefighters on the weekends without putting our money where our mouth is during the week.
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    Firefighters are our Nation's first responders, and very often, they are the last to leave. Yet the Federal Government has thus far shown very little commitment to them and to the communities they serve. The fire services have been the forgotten part of the public safety equation.
    That ends with this legislation. The Congress spends billions and billions on law enforcement in our communities. We all support that critically needed investment. It has helped to foster crime reduction year after year.
    Yet we spend annually only $40 million, roughly, on fire administration. That disparity is simply wrong. It is outdated, as much of the equipment our firefighters are using to protect our lives and our neighborhoods. This bill, as you know, provides grants for hiring personnel, purchasing needed new and modernized equipment, fire prevention and educational programs. Wellness programs for our firefighters, modifying outdated fire stations, and more.
    These grants will go to paid fire departments, as well as part-paid and volunteer departments and EMTs, as well. There is no selective assistance in this bill. All 31,000 plus departments are recognized, included and are eligible. And it sends the dollars directly to the departments through competitive grants, not syphoned off at the State level, but directly to our communities where they need the assistance.
    The bill has a tremendous amount of support, 265 co-sponsors as of this morning, including 5 of the 7 members of this Subcommittee. We have a companion bill in the United States Senate, introduced by Senators DeWine and Dodd that is picking up support every day. We have the strong support, as you will hear, of the seven major fire service organizations. And we have the National Safe Kids Coalition strong endorsement and grass roots support.
    Much has been made by opponents of this measure of the Administration's lack of public support. That argument no longer can be made. Because just a few weeks ago, OMB director Jack Lew told the International Association of Fire Fighters, and I will submit the comments for the record, ''We look forward to working with you to secure passage of this important legislation.'' The support is bipartisan, and it should be, because firefighters don't go into a burning building and ask the inhabitants what their political persuasion is.
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    This is not a political or partisan issue. Perhaps most important to me is the support of real firefighters. I have heard from literally thousands of them, and so have you. Many of them are here today, like Chief Lou Imperato of Passaic, New Jersey, who is down 37 firefighters from where his department should be. He help write this bill with his colleagues on my Public Safety Advisory Committee.
    All here today also know about the honorable firefighters who lost their lives in Worcester, Massachusetts. Others from across the country are here. They are in this hearing room and on Capitol Hill, they have made this bill our cause. We should listen very carefully to what they have to say.
    I have been listening to them since I was the Mayor of New Jersey's third largest city, Paterson. When you are the mayor, you get a lot of calls, and I was crazy enough to have a listed phone number, besides.
    Some calls you greatly enjoy. And others you dread with every ounce of being you have. I got one such call February of 1991, and I want to share it with you, because it says a lot about what we're doing here.
    The fire had engulfed an entire downtown block in Paterson. It was a cold day, but the fire lasted for a day and a half. The initial company responded to the first alarm at 7:30 a.m. The firemen advanced to the basement and tried to find the source of the blaze.
    The smoke was dense. The men hung onto the rope for safety and withdrew by command. The heat and smoke were overwhelming, and the men withdrew as the fire began to rage. All withdrew except John Nicosia, a young, married brave firefighter.
    John became disoriented and was trapped in the basement. We lost him that day. It took us two days to find him. I'll never forget that.
    I have thought of this family often during this effort. And it keeps me going to get this Congress to do what is right. I know there are questions about this bill, how do we pay for it, why this function should not continue to be left to local governments. They are legitimate questions, I look forward to trying to answer them to the Committee's satisfaction.
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    Let me say a few words about the need for this bill, because that may help us find the motivation to develop answers to these questions. A fire department in this country responds to a fire every 18 seconds. There is a civilian fire death every two hours. A recent survey I did in my district found that 75 percent of the departments are understaffed. Some terribly understaffed by as many as 40 folks in the bigger cities. Our State's second largest city, Jersey City, has its fire personnel reduced by 200 in just the last 10 years.
    This is happening throughout the country. Firefighting has taken on many new faces in the past 25 years, with domestic terrorism response, hazardous materials spills and other challenges now front and center. Our local taxpayers simply cannot afford to shoulder this burden alone. There are only so many bake sales you can hold when you need to hire new or train firefighters or purchase equipment. We don't ask communities to go it alone for the law enforcement needs. We shouldn't ask them to do it for fire safety.
    As I close, I'd like to show one minute of a video I received that puts a face on what I have been saying. This is from a special report on the NBC affiliate in Boston. They've done a piece called Cause for Alarm on fire safety in Massachusetts. It is similar to the stories I've heard throughout this country.
    [Video shown.]
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Mr. Pascrell. We appreciate your testimony. Your five minutes are over, and it's taking time away from others.
    Mr. PASCRELL. Just two seconds.
    My colleagues, I have town resolutions here, Madam Chairlady, from communities as far away as Hawaii. They say the same thing, that they support this bill and are asking for help. We should pass the Fire Bill because it's right. We should do it now and demonstrate that the Congress is fully committed to fire safety in America.
    Our firefighters in the communities we represent deserve nothing less. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, and thank you to the Committee.
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    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you. And I just want to remind the other members, we've got three panels today. And if each could stick to their five minute limit and submit their full remarks for the record, then we could hear everyone today. Otherwise, we're not going to be able to.
    I want to welcome Mr. Terry, who's the Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee, and also Congressman McGovern. By unanimous consent, I ask that Congressman McGovern be allowed to participate in this Subcommittee hearing, since he's not a member of the Subcommittee.
    Without objection, so ordered.
    I'd like now to go to Senator DeWine as our next witness.
    Senator DEWINE. Madam Chairwoman, thank you very much for holding this hearing today.
    Overall, fire is responsible for killing more Americans than all natural disasters in this country combined. Sadly, many of those who die each year in fires are children. In 1996, for example, nearly 800 children ages 14 and under died in residential fires. More than 60 percent of these children were ages 4 and under. In addition, each year, fires in the home injured nearly 47,000 children ages 14 and under.
    What we're asking today is for the Federal Government really for the first time to be of great assistance to local law enforcement. Local law enforcement is just that, it's local. There are tens of thousands of volunteers across this country, tens of thousands of individuals who do this every day for a living, and that is their obligation and their duty and they do it very, very well.
    We want to, with this bill for the first time, to send some money down to them to be of assistance. Fire work is not just dealing with fires. It is also prevention. And as has already been mentioned, this bill provides for prevention money. There is a great deal that local fire departments do every single day to reach out into the community to school groups, school children, to others, to help them and to reach into local communities.
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    I look forward to this bill being passed, and a significant amount of money being able to be spent on fire prevention, as well as giving our fire men and women the equipment and the tools they need. They are true professionals. This bill, Madam Chairwoman, will save lives.
    I will submit the balance of my statement for the record.
    Thank you.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Senator DeWine.
    Senator Dodd.
    Senator DODD. Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman. I appreciate immensely the honor to appear before you and this Committee. It's always gracious when House members invite Senators to come on over here and appear before you. I'm delighted to be sharing the dais here with colleagues on both sides of the aisle who are deeply interested in pursuing legislation that will enhance tremendously the public safety in this country.
    And I'd ask unanimous consent that a full statement be included in the record.
    I note, Madam Chairman, that Benjamin Franklin is often credited with organizing the first fire department in the United States. And he did so 40 years before he helped organize the country, which may indicate his ability to have a broad vision of the need, Congress would need a fire department early on. So we admire Benjamin Franklin's foresight.
    It's been stated very fully by my colleagues here already about the value and the importance of this issue. I think all of us in the country, but certainly those from Massachusetts and New England, the tragedy and the dangers of being a firefighter were brought vividly home with the tragic loss in that horrendous blaze in Worcester only a few short months ago.
    If there is any silver lining in that tragedy, I suppose it's the fact that we're here today. I would like to think that these bills might have been introduced anyway. The energy and support behind them might be there anyway. But I think it was that tragedy which sort of crystallized the concerns that you're bearing witness to at this table, and the desire to see something done in this Congress to enhance the capabilities of our local departments to respond to these tragedies.
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    It isn't just fires, obviously, as you'll hear from others, and people who can speak far more eloquently and knowledgeably this issue. Usually the first vehicles to arrive at any tragedy or accident are fire vehicles, or emergency medical services. When terrorism strikes at the Trade Centers in New York, the first vehicles were fire trucks. It wasn't the police department. When there's an accident on our highways, it's usually a fire vehicle there first.
    So it's far beyond the issue of just putting out fires, which is obviously a principal responsibility. It's tragedies of all kinds that face our citizenry in this country.
    We lose a firefighter, there are one million of them, of the firefighters in the country, and we lose one every three days. A hundred families every year know the tragedy of losing a husband or wife or daughter or son, the child who has dedicated his or her life to fire fighting and related services.
    We spend about $11 billion on the COPS program. It's been a great program. I know it was a source of great division and debate here, but I don't know of anyone today, Republican or Democrat, who would take back the money that we've spent to improve the security of our streets through the COPS program, $11 billion, money well spent, and the American citizenry wholeheartedly endorsed that effort.
    We spend on my calculation, others may have better numbers, about $32 million when it comes to firefighting capabilities in the country. We're not asking for parity here, we're not asking for dollar for dollar. Understand there are differences. But we do think the Federal Government ought to be a better partner in this. Our State and local governments do a terrific job. But they need help, the can't do it alone. A lot of communities just don't have the resources. You saw it here on this video that our colleague, Congressman Pascrell, offered to show you. We all represent small towns in our various States or urban areas that struggled every year to meet their resource requirements.
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    So the Federal Government, in our view, ought not to take on the sole responsibility of this. That would be ridiculous. But we do think we can be a better partner in this, because all of us pay a price when these tragedies occur. And for those reasons, we are urging support of these bills. I'm pleased to be the principal co-sponsor with my good friend, Mike DeWine of Ohio, in a Senate bill.
    We're very much aware of what happened with the supplemental. I'll tell you candidly, if you can call Trent Lott this afternoon, get him to bring up the supplemental, you're going to have a very happy group of Senators. I know the House did its job here. But that doesn't look like it's going to get done, quite candidly.
    But I'm hopeful in the 40 days or so we have left, we're not going to legislate much here this year, with the Presidential elections. But I would hope this is one of the bills we could get done. Here you've got the White House who's solidly behind this, the Office of Management and Budget, you've got Democrats and Republicans, it's one of those rare opportunities. People talk about how much we bicker and fight and can't get anything done. Here's something we can get done. And we can get it done before this session of Congress is over with.
    So even if it doesn't meet the full billion dollars a year we'd like, if we can get at least a good percentage of that to get this moving, not only will we have achieved something legislatively, we'll truly make a difference. The 44,000 people, the firefighters, who get injured every year in this country, really are turning to us to ask us to be of help.
    So Madam Chairman, I thank you immensely for listening, and urge the adoption of these bills in whatever configuration we can put them together and get some money behind this and get it back to these communities, and step up to the plate, as I think the country is looking for us to do.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Senator Dodd. I want to thank both of you for coming over. I know you have schedules that you have to meet. But I'd just like to make one point. Because Senator DeWine brought it up, and that was the need for prevention. I just want to note that over one year ago, the House passed by a vote of 407 to 2 the Disaster Mitigation Act, which provides millions of dollars for fire prevention.
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    That bill is languishing in the Senate. It finally got out of the Environment and Public Works Committee, it's S. 1691. No Floor action has been scheduled, so if you two Senators could really work to get that going.
    And everybody in here, from States all around this country, it's S. 1691. Tell your Senators it needs to get to the Floor. Because we've got a chance this year to really make it——
    Senator DODD. We're going to tell Trent what you're saying about him over here.
    [Laughter.]
    Mrs. FOWLER.Prevention is the key. So help us do that.
    Senator DODD. Tell Chairman Shuster we said hello as well, and thank him.
    Mrs. FOWLER. We will. Thank you so much. We appreciate your being here.
    I'd now like to call on Congressman Nick Smith.

    Mr. SMITH. Madam Chair and Committee members, thank you very much for letting me address your Committee today. I think it is a glorious day, an exciting day, because we're going to discuss how we can support our first responders in this country. We need to provide needed assistance to our Nation's first responders.
    America, as we've heard, is well served by the fire and emergency service personnel in over 32,000 fire departments around our country. Within those 32,000 fire departments, we have 1,200,000 men and women that are working, that are going out risking their lives almost on a daily basis.
    Eighty percent of these individuals, of these first responders, are community volunteers. They face personal dangers as they provide protection for our lives and our property. Nearly 100 firefighters lose their lives in the line of duty every year. As a comparison, that's about one half as many as law enforcement losing their lives. So we give billions of dollars to law enforcement. We haven't done very well in supporting our first responders. And again, 80 percent of these people are volunteers.
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    Cynicism, I know, has infected corners of our country and too many now consider duty and honor relics of a past age. But our Nation's first responders embody the ideal that individuals have obligations to the community, that our country needs its domestic defenders, our first responders, as much as it needs a national defense.
    To that end, I'm glad we're here today examining some of the ways the Federal Government can help provide some of the needed assistance.
    One year ago, when we passed the authorizing bill for the Fire Administration out of my committee, I started working on this legislation. It's called the Hero Act, it's H.R. 4146. I started with the word hero and then came up with the 'Help Emergency Responders Operate.' I went to Curt Weldon and said, what are the kinds of things that we can do and put in this bill that will make this act really help, and an act that can be bipartisan.
    This is a bipartisan bill. It combines eight distinct incentives and initiatives into one comprehensive two year authorization aimed at assisting paid and volunteer fire departments at a fiscally sustainable level. Three sections of the bill provide authorizations for initiatives that received overwhelming support in the House just two weeks ago, when we offered it as an amendment to the Emergency Supplemental bill.
    In addition, this bill creates the framework for Federal fire assistance that was called for in the House version of fiscal year 2001 budget resolution. We had it in the budget.
    Let me begin by describing how the Hero Act assists over the 1,200,000 men and women who protect our lives. The bill recognizes the contributions of volunteer firefighters by authorizing an already existing program, $10 million for 2001, 2002, through USDA's volunteer fire assistance program. This program allows the nearly 28,000 rural fire departments nationwide to apply for cost share grants for training, equipping and organizing their personnel. These rural fire departments represent the first line of defense for rural areas coping with fires and other emergency.
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    The bill also authorizes a loan guarantee program for low interest loans to volunteer fire and rescue services. This program, to be run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, provides loans up to $200,000 to departments to help purchase equipment, repair facilities, carry out arson and fire prevention programs, and enhance safety programs for firefighters. The bill authorizes $35 million a year for fiscal year one and two to provide seed money for this loan program and cover administrative costs.
    The bill also authorizes two grant programs at FEMA. The first is an $80 million competitive grant program for volunteer paid fire and emergency services. With these 50–50 matching grants, departments can pay for safety, firefighting, and communications equipment.
    A second grant program under FEMA provides $10 million for burn research. Under this program, safety organizations, hospitals, government, non-governmental entities, can receive competitive grants to conduct burn research, which Steny Hoyer has worked so diligently on.
    Recognizing that our fire and rescue services are also first responders to terrorist attacks, the Hero Act authorizes $20 million to establish a grant program under FEMA for counter-terrorism training. This is going to allow paid and volunteer fire departments, ambulance services, hazardous material units and rescue squads to purchase appropriate equipment.
    The Act also directs the Federal Communications Commission to reallocate certain radio frequencies for use by public safety services to enable them to communicate more effectively in the event of large scale emergencies, such as the Oklahoma City bombing. In that situation, emergency services personnel ran out of available frequency and a communication was hindered. This additional frequency will help alleviate the congestion during times of crisis.
    In addition, the Act authorizes $15 million for improvements to the hazardous support system at the United States Geological Survey. The upgrades improve the USGS's vast system of sensors and monitors to provide real time detection of wildland fires or other natural disasters, and share the information with appropriate emergency services. The Act also authorizes $4 million for the continued operation and maintenance of the system, and requires a study of the best methods for disseminating data.
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    The final section of the bill corrects a situation that makes certain emergency services departments in low income communities eligible for community development block grant funds. These departments are denied funds because they are not physically located within low income areas they serve. The Hero Act corrects this problem by clarifying the eligibility of departments that protect low income communities for CDBG funds.
    Our firefighters, Madam Chairman and committee members, our firefighters and EMS personnel respond to emergencies every day, more than 18 million a year, from car accidents to brush fires, to large scale disasters like the tornadoes that ripped through Fort Worth two weeks ago. Emergency responders are first on the scene, first to react, first to provide the assistance we too often take for granted. Let's move ahead with legislation that's going to allow us for the first time to really support our firefighters in this country.
    These emergency first responders, who literally put their lives on the line each day, deserve our support. I'm thankful for the bipartisan support that this bill enjoys. And I would like to think that we can move ahead in a bipartisan fashion to make sure, Madam Chair, that we are going to help our first responders in this country that give us so much of their time and really risk their lives when they are out to protect us in cases of fires and other emergencies.
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Congressman Smith.
    Congressman Hoyer.
    Mr. HOYER. Thank you very much, Congressman Fowler. I am pleased to join you and Mrs. Berkley, Congressman Berkley, in discussing this legislation. And indeed, these three pieces of legislation on the agenda are bills that directly benefit the fire service.
    The first of these is H.R. 1168, sponsored by the gentleman from New Jersey, Bill Pascrell, who as you can tell, feels passionately about this effort and has been involved in this effort for a long period of time. I know that Congressman Weldon and I, who have co-chaired the Fire Service Caucus for many years, are pleased to join Congressman Pascrell in this important piece of legislation.
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    One of the other bills, H.R. 3155, offered by Mr. Gekas, as well as the Hero Bill offered by Mr. Smith, give this Committee some options that I think are very important. I would observe however that I think they can be incorporated, frankly, in the larger bill, which is the $5 billion authorization bill sponsored by Mr. Pascrell.
    Nothing that I say or Mr. Weldon, who is extraordinarily articulate and passionate on this issue himself, or frankly, any of the remarks that have been made by our two United States Senators or the other House members, can speak frankly, Madam Chair, more eloquently than the acts and deeds of those who sit behind me and those that they represent, the fire service of this country, the domestic defenders, as they have been called by Curt Weldon.
    Recently on the supplemental appropriation bill, as you observed, the House passed by an overwhelming vote of 386 to 28 the Weldon-Hoyer-Pascrell-Smith amendment. The amendment would provide, as you observed, $100 million. It was a major victory for our first responders, not only in terms of resources, but for the recognition that there needs to be a larger Federal commitment, a commitment on the order of Congressman Pascrell's FIRE Act. The FIRE Act stands, as you know, Madam Chair, for Firefighter Investment and Response Enhancement Act. We need to invest in our firefighters and their safety, as well as the safety of the community and our neighbors and friends and children whom they protect. I want you to consider the cost of some of the items that municipalities and fire companies have to cover.
    A ladder truck, three quarters of a million dollars, engine pumper, $300,000, ambulance, $115,000. And these are bottom figures, not top figures. Thermal imaging equipment, life saving equipment, $20,000. Turnout gear, $1,500, breathing apparatus, $3,000. And they are approximate and probably low.
    Depending on the nature of the community, they also have their own special challenges, as all of us know. For example, in my district that abuts the Chesapeake Bay, some of the departments have to have water capability as well. Many urban departments have chem-bio equipment and rural departments out west have a completely separate set of gear for wildland firefighting.
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    These costs, while significant, tell only half the story. Consider the cost when you factor in operating expenses and training. Nationwide, there are 32,000 fire companies who get varying levels of support from municipalities they serve. Some areas are good about giving first responders who put their lives on the line the resources they need to safely and effectively do their jobs. For a variety of reasons, other communities cannot or do not do as well.
    Regrettably, we lose 100 firefighters every year in the line of duty. We have a moral responsibility to make their jobs safer and to give them the opportunity to do it more effectively.
    Madam Chair, firefighting is a dangerous business, a business that often claims the bodies and lives of the men and women of the fire service. No amount of money, not a billion, not five billion, will ever change the inherent danger of fighting fires.
    But with the proper training and tools, firefighting can be made safer. In the last 10 years alone, Madam Chair, firefighter fatalities are down 35 percent. Civilian deaths now running about 4,000 a year, have also continued to decline for the past 20 years. With added resources, I am confident that we could continue to bring both these figures down.
    Madam Chair, this bill has 268 co-sponsors. There is a broad consensus, bipartisan in nature, that this Congress needs to act to give our firefighters and first responders and emergency response teams more resources through which they can accomplish the objectives that we have asked them to do.
    I would hope that this Committee would favorably respond, as they do. Thank you very much.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Mr. Hoyer.
    Our next two witnesses, Congressman Gekas and Congressman Weldon, were not here in the beginning. I want to welcome you. The practice of the Subcommittee is to swear in witnesses before they testify. So if I could just get you each to stand for a minute and raise your right hands.
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    Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
    [All witnesses respond in the affirmative.]
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you.
    I now call on Congressman Gekas.

    Mr. GEKAS. Thank you. I thank the Chair and the members of the Committee for this opportunity.
    The gentleman from Maryland is absolutely correct, the bill that I have introduced and which is before you can be properly incorporated into the larger bill that has seen advancement now up to this moment, or it can, as a fallback position, constitute a small step that can be taken, a more moderate step that can be taken in view of what our budgetary problems might be. Either way, it can help in the overall picture of assisting our firefighters across the Nation.
    In Pennsylvania, my colleague, Curt Weldon, is the major domo of firefighter issues. I consider myself his doorman. And I would open the door any time, if he walks in any place where I might be myself. But more specifically, I try to help him open doors, as he has been doing for so long, to try to help our firefighting system across the Nation.
    In this regard, he will substantiate, I am sure, that in Pennsylvania, where there has been an ongoing 2 percent loan program that we established in the Pennsylvania General Assembly way back when I was a freshman in that body, was a great boon to the volunteer fire companies throughout our commonwealth. And because of that, they were able to obtain state of the art equipment for the various new duties that were thrust upon them. And they incurred the debt, modest though it is on repayment, nevertheless, a debt.
    Since then, demands upon them have increased. Tremendous accidents on the interstates that have mushroomed across Pennsylvania and elsewhere across the Nation since we put in that loan program, just to give you one example of the increased pressure on our local firefighters. But many other kinds of exigencies have occurred.
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    So what has happened, some of our volunteer fire companies who need even newer equipment or have to provide newer services and adopt more expenses of one kind or another, are still strapped with their original loan, even though it had a low percentage payment interest quotient in it. So what we've proposed here, we call it the FLAME Act, we were very original in coming with FLAME. I can't even repeat it for you exactly, but it's FLAME, nevertheless, like HERO, except it's FLAME.
    [Laughter.]
    Mr. GEKAS. The Firefighters Local-Federal Assistance for Management of Emergencies, FLAME Act, would enable a matching program on the part of this overall bundle that we're creating here to which testimony has been offered, in which when a local company is able to raise some money through pizza sales and all the other money fund raising plans that they execute, in which all of us have participated in so many different ways, if they can raise X amount of dollars, the Federal Government will match it up to $20,000.
    These are just figures that are approximate, we can change all of them. But that will enable our firefighter companies, our volunteer companies, to help retire that debt so that they can have room for the other expenses that are mounting on them.
    The thing that struck me today as I was coming here to testify, I say to the Chair, was that we're in a movement to consider forgiveness of billions of dollars worth of debt to third world countries, third world countries, to forgive it, to X is out completely. And all we're asking in the consideration of this legislation is to not forgive the debt that our firefighter companies that save our lives are experiencing, but to help them properly pay down that debt. Not even eliminate it, but to allow them extra ways and means to pay down the debt.
    So I join all my colleagues in focusing on the issue, and offering my modest piece of legislation, as I say, as an adjunct to the totality, or a standalone that will signal a small step forward in helping our volunteer companies.
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    I yield back the balance of my non-time.
    [Laughter.]
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you. You have been the best so far today, the red light hasn't come on yet. Thanks very much, we appreciate it.
    I understand, Congressman Smith, you have to leave. So whenever you have to leave feel free to do so. Thank you for your assistance today, we really appreciate it.
    And now, last but not least, Congressman Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania.
    Mr. WELDON. Thank you, Madam Chairman. And let me thank you and the distinguished Ranking Member for being here and for this important hearing.
    I don't have a written statement, I'll simply speak from the heart about something I believe in very passionately. But before I do, I want to thank you for your leadership as a part of the Republican leadership team who, I want the fire service to know, went to the wall to put the pressure on to allow that amendment to be offered as a part of the supplemental. Without your help, Madam Chairman, that would not have occurred, and I appreciate that. And I know your firefighters down in Florida do, as well.
    Madam Chairman, I'm in a unique position. I would not be in this job were it not for the fire service. In fact, my loyalties are, number one, the fire service, number two, the Congress, and number three, the Republican Party. I am a fire service person first, having been born and raised in the fire company, worked my way up through the ranks to become the president and chief officer of my company, becoming a state fire instructor, running a volunteer training company for 80 fire companies in suburban Philadelphia, while going to school in the evening while teaching to get a degree in fire protection. I have lived the fire service all of my life.
    In the 14 years I've been in Congress, I've been very frustrated. And I can tell you, I've been frustrated by Republican presidents and Democrat presidents. It was Ronald Reagan, Madam Chairman, who tried to cancel out, zero out the funding for the U.S. Fire Academy. It was because of Democrats and Republicans that that didn't occur.
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    It was George Bush's budget people who did not give us the funding increases that we asked for that we knew were warranted. They gave us the special commemorative coin that generated some millions of dollars for fire service issues, but not the attention, the focus that we wanted.
    And for the past eight years, Madam Chairperson, we've heard some good rhetoric, but not much substance. It's very frustrating to me, Madam Chairman, to sit through eight State of the Union speeches and four or six before that and not hear one mention of the word fire and EMS. We've praised pilots for our planes that fly over the Iraqi no-fly zone. We've praised law enforcement officers, but we've not heard one mention made of a brave firefighter or EMS person out there doing their job, and not one, not one program designed to assist.
    In fact, the $25 million of new money slated for FEMA this year wasn't even slated for the intent which it's now being talked about. It was intended to be a program in poor areas. It's now being reconfigured to try to offset the impetus being generated by this legislation.
    It's offensive to me, Madam Chairperson, that we would see an Administration create a half a billion dollar new program called AmeriCorps that no volunteer firefighter in this country can be a part of. That's absolutely outrageous. And it shows a lack of response and concern for these men and women and what they do every day. We have a million volunteers in this country, we create a half a billion dollar new program called AmeriCorps and yet not one volunteer fire company can get one dime from that money. What kind of artificial volunteerism is it that we have to be politically correct? And the fire service has not been politically correct when AmeriCorps was created.
    In fact, it was so bad, when the Presidential summit was held on volunteerism in Philadelphia, the National Volunteer Fire Council was not even invited, and with their national meeting that year, which was held in the King of Prussia fire house. I told those leaders of the volunteer service nationwide, if you're not invited, we'll hold a counter demonstration. Because this Administration is not going to talk about artificially creating paid volunteers, while ignoring a million people every year who serve their communities in 32,000 locations across this country.
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    How can we, Madam Chairperson, acknowledge the focus of the fire service when we've never fully funded the existing volunteer loan program that benefits our rural fire departments across America, authorized at $10 million. In fact, the Administration cut by $1 million the funding we put in that very program last year. It went from $3.5 million to a $2.5 million request in this year's budget request by the President.
    So Madam Chair, you can see I'm upset, I'm outraged. Because the lip service and the rhetoric doesn't follow the substance. And excuse me if I have to be critical of both parties and the leadership of both parties, but I have to be. Because that's where it belongs.
    The gentleman from New Jersey has offered a good bill. But the President has not come out in favor of the bill. Neither has the Vice President. The Office of Management and Budget made a weak statement about maybe supporting it, but told James Lee Witt quietly, well, we want more of a commitment on the part of local support for this program, because James Lee Witt told me that.
    We finally got some support in the Congress several weeks ago. In fact there was some distortion, Madam Chair. There was distortion because besides the $100 million of funding, we tried to free up access to the $4.8 billion of community development block grants that go out to every county and city in America. Some of our colleagues try to distort the facts and say that we were taking money away from the poor.
    It's outrageous to me, as a former mayor of a poor town, and a county commission chairman of a county of 600,000, that we would distort money that would go to help create hazmat teams that would service poor communities, that would provide anti-terrorism teams that could service poor communities, that would provide support for those volunteer and paid departments that have to respond to poor areas, but today can't get a dime of that CDBG money. That's an area we could be helping the fire service.
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    Madam Chairman, I'm here to tell you, it is time that we respond. Now, there is criticism out there. In fact, there was a prominent D.C. columnist, E.J. Deon, who probably had his head up you know where, when he wrote a column criticizing the amendment that we added to the appropriations bill. He said, what is this Congress doing, helping the volunteer fire and paid fire fighters of America? Well, where was he when the President said we needed 100,000 new teachers or 100,00 new cops?
    I support police, but I'd like to see the day when our law enforcement people go out and hold chicken dinners and tag days to buy police cars. And as a former teacher, I would like to have more teachers. But what about the 100 fire and EMS people who are killed every year, most of them volunteers, and doing what they want to do to protect their communities? Where's the recognition of their effort?
    It's time that we recognize and fully support these individuals, and recognize that there is a role for the Federal Government to play. Let me say, Madam Chair, I believe with all my heart fire and EMS is a local and State responsibility. I'm not trying to change that. I do not want to Federalize the fire service. As a former mayor and county commissioner, it is best controlled locally.
    But some things are changing right now. First of all, we are giving the fire service of this country additional responsibility. Now, rightfully, if we believe that the security of this Nation should be defended by our military, then we should create a whole new military corps to go out there and protect our towns from the threat of a terrorist activity. But that ain't going to happen, Madam Chair, because as you know, as a member and colleague of mine on the Armed Services Committee, we can't support the military we have today.
    So if we're going to ask somebody to respond to these terrorist incidents, someone to respond to these chem-bio incidents, who is that going to be? Is it the Federal Government? Now, asking the local fire and EMS community to respond, absolutely. What have we done to assist them? Madam Chair, we have not done much. We started some initial training programs through the Department of Justice and through DOD that was off center up front, finally brought around to include the concerns of the fire service.
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    But in this training of the 125 largest city fire departments in America, and giving them resources, we have forgotten that almost every one of these cities have severe budget problems. The city of D.C., at one point in time two years ago, had one ladder truck servicing the entire city. If a city can't buy the boots for the firefighters, how are they going to maintain the chem-bio equipment that we're giving them in part of the national training?
    It's ridiculous. And it's not on the mark in terms of how to support the kind of needs that these fire and EMS people have nationwide. So we are giving them additional responsibilities and therefore, there is a role, a legitimate role, for the Federal Government to come in and help equip these people to do that job and to provide safety for them.
    Second, Madam Chair, some of our conservative friends in our party would say, wait a minute. This is not a function of the Federal Government. Firefighting is a local responsibility. Well, let me tell you, Madam Chair. Both paid and volunteer firefighters are that one group of people who enjoy the highest degree of respect of any of our professions in America, higher than any. Everyone respects them.
    They don't just fight fires. The rescue the cats in the trees, they pump out the cellars out when they're flooded, when there's a search needed for a lost child, you call the fire department. When the town has a Memorial Day parade or a July Fourth celebration, it's the fire department that organizes it. When the IAFF Union starts the pass the boot campaign to raise money, it's the paid firefighters that are out there on the street corners raising the dollars and the dimes.
    The heart and soul of our communities across America are the local fire and EMS organizations. They're the backbone of our towns, they're the heart and soul of our country. And the problem is, Madam Chair, that we're losing volunteers. They can't keep up their effort. They are spending more time in running tag days and chicken dinners and bingos than they are on training and preparing for that ultimate disaster. We've got to help them.
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    Now, the alternative for my conservative friends, that don't believe we should help them, is do away with all the volunteers. Well, let me tell you, Madam Chair, somebody's got to take care of our cities and towns. And that's going to be a cost that's been estimated at $36 billion a year.
    I say it's a fiscally conservative point of view to provide some help for both paid and volunteer firefighters. It is a cost saving measure that we step in and provide some support. Whether that support is through the kind of legislation that Mr. Pascrell has offered, or for the low interest loan program that Mr. Smith has offered, or whether it's through allocating additional frequencies so that we can communicate on the fire ground or the disaster ground, there are things that we can and should be doing.
    And I come before you today and ask you to lead that effort and provide that help. This should not be a partisan issue. In fact, it must be a bipartisan issue. Now is the time for the U.S. Congress to send a signal. Let's stop making the rhetoric about how to help the fire service. Let's do some substantive things.
    Senator Dodd when he was here said that we ought to take the word to Trent Lott that he ought to come out in support of the $100 million item that we passed two weeks ago. And I agree with him.
    But I say it's time to get President Clinton to come out publicly and say he'll support the bill and sign that $100 million into law. If he would do that, then maybe the Senate would bring that particular act up for passage.
    This is a bipartisan effort and I am not going to let either party use it for political advantage. The fire service needs the bipartisan support of Republicans and Democrats in this Congress and in this city, and needs less rhetoric about the partisan advantage that either side could take to score points with those brave American heroes that serve our communities.
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    Thank you.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Mr. Weldon.
    [Applause.]
    Mrs. FOWLER. If we could refrain from demonstrations, but I share the audience's enthusiasm.
    Mr. Weldon, you have been a leader every year you've been in Congress on behalf of firefighters all over this country. In fact, you got me to be a member of the Fire Caucus early on, and I've worked with you.
    So we thank each one of you today for being with us.
    As I stated earlier, because soon we're going to have over an hour's worth of votes on the Floor, and we're trying to move this along, I will submit my questions for this panel for the record. But I would like to ask if any of our members have a question. Mr. Berkley?
    Ms. BERKLEY. I'll try to be very brief, and thank you very much, Chairwoman.
    What I've heard today is nothing short of extraordinary, and I know that the firefighters and first responders have always been and continue to be our Nation's heroes. I am a proud co-sponsor of this legislation. I believe Congress must establish a Federal grant program for fire departments to protect health and safety of both the public and our firefighters.
    In the district that I represent, we've worked extremely hard to integrate cutting edge technology for our local fire departments. In particular, we have been forced, due to the extraordinary number of arsons that occur in my district, to bolster our expertise in arson investigations. In 1998 alone, there were 361 arson investigations in Clark County, Nevada. Of those investigations, 62 percent or 227 of these arson investigations were incendiary. However, only 27 arrests were made.
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    As we know, with many fires, the origin may never be determined as intentional or accidental due to lack of resources, training or experience of our fire investigators. And shockingly, the national solve rate for arson is somewhere in the range of 14 to 18 percent. That in and of itself is a crime.
    The ATF provides an excellent training program to the States and local fire investigators as well as prosecutors, to help educate our investigators and help them with their jobs. When the ATF assists the local communities with investigations, the solve rate increases dramatically. Unfortunately, the ATF classes are in high demand and they have a tremendously long waiting list.
    I believe that we could bring about in increase in the solve rate for arson nationwide if more State and local departments could avail themselves of the ATF's training and educate arson investigators in a more comprehensive manner. While reading through this bill, and I have two questions, I noticed that the bill authorizes grants, among other things, for training and firefighting, emergency response, arson prevention and detection. I'm pleased that this provision has been included.
    However, I'd like to suggest to the sponsors of the bill that investigation training be included, along with arson prevention and detection, as an eligible activity. And may I also suggest to the authors of the bill that you add arson investigators in the bill alongside fire personnel. As I'm sure you already know, many fire departments do not do their own fire investigation, but rely on the police departments or the State fire marshal to conduct arson investigations, if they have arrest authority.
    I received a number of calls from my firefighters that this reference to fire personnel may not include arson investigators. In many jurisdictions, arson investigators are classified as fire personnel, but there are some jurisdictions in this country in which they are not. If I could offer those two suggestions, I would be extremely grateful to you.
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    And thank you again very much for introducing this, Congressman Pascrell and Congressman Weldon. The testimony has been extraordinary, and I am grateful to participate.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Ms. Berkley.
    Mr. Terry, did you have any questions or comments?
    Mr. TERRY. I just want to make one quick explanation from some of the comments that I heard. I have to run real quick.
    Mr. Weldon had mentioned—I consider myself one of those conservatives, local control. But the one area I also know that we should be helping out with is with fire departments.
    I want to say that I'm one of those conservatives, I'm not running around saying, let's do away with our volunteer fire departments. But certainly, as the Federal Government in today's changing world places more and more responsibilities on those local firefighters, it is becoming more and more of a Federal responsibility, as opposed to, in essence, an unfunded mandate which compliance to that is a conservative cause.
    So with that, thank you for letting me comment.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Mr. Terry.
    Congressman McGovern?
    Mr. MCGOVERN. I just want to say thank you to all of you. I represent Worcester, Massachusetts, where we had that terrible tragedy in early December. I really want you to know how grateful not only I am, but the community I represent is, for all of your dedication on this issue. I share the frustration that Congressman Weldon expressed so eloquently about the lack of progress over the years. I hope this is the year that we can actually do something.
    I think with this bipartisan group that has testified here, both representatives of the House and the Senate, I would like to think that would be enough to impress the leaderships of both the House and the Senate to schedule something. We have 265 co-sponsors of Mr. Pascrell's bill. I mean, that's incredible. That's a testament to his leadership and the support that so many have given, and the lobbying of the firefighters across this country.
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    I should also say for the record that from my understanding, the President will support this bill.
    Mr. WELDON. He hasn't said that publicly.
    Mr. MCGOVERN. My understanding is his chief of staff has made that clear to the fire services, and——
    Mr. WELDON. Will the gentleman yield?
    Mr. MCGOVERN. Yes.
    Mr. WELDON. Could he put that in the document of the hearing so we can have a document saying that? The only one I've heard is Jack Lew from OMB.
    Mr. MCGOVERN. And my understanding is John Podesta has also.
    Mr. WELDON. I want the President. He needs to speak for himself.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Mr. Weldon, wait——
    Mr. MCGOVERN. Well, I will yield to Mr. Pascrell. But the deal is, you know, I have no doubt at all that he will sign this bill, and the President has demonstrated an incredible sensitivity, I think, at least to the Worcester firefighter and firefighters all across this country. I want to put something on his desk. And I think the first obligation is for us to move and I hope we will.
    But let me yield to Mr. Pascrell.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Mr. Pascrell, briefly.
    Mr. PASCRELL. I would, although I have received assurances in writing, I would like to see a statement from the President. But I'd also like to see a statement from the Speaker. Because if we're going to move together, which is what you're advocating, I support it. So I'm going to do what I can to get the President to put it in writing. And you're going to do what you can, I think, or from what you said, to get the Speaker to put it in writing.
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    Mr. MCGOVERN. So Bill and I will get the letter from the President. You can get the letter from the Speaker, how's that?
    Mr. WELDON. Will the gentleman yield?
    Mr. MCGOVERN. Yes.
    Mr. WELDON. I think the best evidence of the commitment of the House is that we were able to offer an amendment that passed with overwhelming support that has put us on the record. The Speaker has already spoken, because the House has spoken.
    Mr. MCGOVERN. And I appreciate that. I just want to get this bill scheduled so we can move on.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Mr. McGovern.
    I want to again thank the members of this distinguished panel for all of your work. You've all been great leaders in this effort, and we all look forward to working together on this. So thank you again for being with us.
    I'd like to ask unanimous consent to include the statements of Mr. Traficant and Mr. Oberstar and for their questions also to be included in the record. Without objection, so ordered.
    Mrs. FOWLER. I'd like to call the second panel of witnesses, if they would be come forward. We have with us today Mr. Kenneth Burris, Chief Operating Officer at the U.S. Fire Administration, which is in the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And Mr. Robert McGuire, Deputy Associate Administrator of the Research and Special Programs Administration, Department of Transportation.
    Gentlemen, as you've heard earlier, before you sit down, it's customary to swear you in. So if you would just stand and raise your right hand.
    Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
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    [All witnesses respond in the affirmative.]
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you. Be seated.
    As you've heard earlier, we ask, in the interest of time, if you could summarize your testimony in five minutes. And without objection, your full written statement will be included in the record. Mr. Burris, you may begin.
TESTIMONY OF KENNETH O. BURRIS, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, U.S. FIRE ADMINISTRATION, ON BEHALF OF THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY; AND ROBERT MCGUIRE, ACTING ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR, HAZARDOUS MATERIALS SAFETY, RESEARCH AND SPECIAL PROGRAMS ADMINISTRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

    Mr. BURRIS. Good afternoon, Madam Chairman and members of the Subcommittee. My name is Ken Burris and I'm the Chief Operating Officer of the United State Fire Administration. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, James Lee Witt.
    This hearing provides FEMA the opportunity to voice its strong support for the Nation's fire service and its vital role in protecting our community from all hazards. The close of 1999 brought with it the death of six firefighters in Worcester, Massachusetts, three firefighters in Keokuk, Iowa, and seven individual incidents in which firefighters lost their lives, for a total of 16 firefighter line of duty deaths in the month of December alone.
    This tragic month ended a year that saw 100 firefighters killed in the line of duty, the most devastating loss of firefighter lives since 1995. The decade of the 1990's saw 956 firefighters die in the line of duty. And since the creation of the National Fallen Firefighter Memorial in 19812, over 2,000 firefighters have died in the line of duty.
    As Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Fire Administration, the most solemn duty is the preparation of letters of condolences for families of those who have made the supreme sacrifice. Unfortunately, there is seldom a day that I walk by the Fallen Firefighter Memorial that the flags are at full staff. When they are, I take notice, because it is an indication that our country has not lost a firefighter.
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    As we debate the programs and initiatives of varying funding levels for assistance to our Nation's firefighters, in reality we are drawn in to the incomparable process of making value judgments. This process is made even more uncomfortable when it is a determining factor in the health and safety of an individual. Right now, this very minute, there are firefighters desperately involved in the process of making life and death decisions: to risk a firefighter's life to save another, or to risk a firefighter's life to save another's property. These are decisions being made right now on the fire ground without the benefit of debate.
    Firefighters right now are battling a blaze, effecting a rescue, dealing with a hazardous chemical, and are basing their actions on the performance quality of their protective firefighting equipment, and the technology provided by their community to mitigate those incidents.
    The Firefighter Investment and Response Enhancement Act, the amendment to H.R. 3908, and the proposed $25 million grants program in FEMA's 2001 budget submission strike at the very heart of firefighter health and safety issues. The $25 million proposal under FEMA's firefighter grant program seeks to begin the process of addressing the very core issue of firefighter health and safety by providing grants for local level fire departments.
    Eligible expenditures would provide for the purchase of firefighter personal protective clothing and equipment, firefighter wellness and fitness programs, infrastructure and apparatus improvements to enhance firefighter health and safety, training and staffing. Although the details of the grants process is largely dependent upon the level of appropriated funding, it is our intention to direct and provide access to the grants programs to career and volunteer and combination departments.
    Having served in the fire service for 23 years, I consider it a privilege to relay to this Committee, on behalf of Director Witt, FEMA's support of both the Weldon amendment and the FIRE Act. Each of these pieces of legislation allows FEMA to expand its proposed grants programs exponentially in different manners.
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    I view each bill as providing methods of enhancement to FEMA's proposed firefighter health and safety program. The Weldon amendment by providing $90 million makes it possible to expand the number of grant recipients under our current initiative. The additional funding also makes it possible to initiate national programs to address firefighter health and safety, such as the distribution of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Fire Fighters Fire Service Joint Labor Management Wellness-Fitness program.
    This amendment also makes it possible for Director Witt to award grants to burn injury programs. Such programs serve to positively impact and reduce the trauma associated with burn injuries suffered by over 5,300 firefighters annually. The Pascrell bill even further enhances the potential for FEMA in the area of firefighter health and safety, by providing the funds necessary to address staffing levels at the local department level.
    However, and certainly an important component of the bill, it provides the funding necessary to the Nation's fire services efforts in making a difference as it relates to the fire death and injury rate in the civilian population. There is no doubt in my mind that an increase in funding is essential in keeping a commitment that was made to the American people some 25 years ago, with the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act. That commitment was to reduce the unacceptable, the highest fire death and injury rate in the industrialized world. Regrettably, a commitment we have yet to fulfill.
    Thank you, Madam Chairman, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have at this time.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Mr. Burris.
    I now call Mr. McGuire.
Mr. MCGUIRE. Good afternoon, Madam Chairman and members of the Subcommittee. I'm Robert McGuire, the Acting Associate Administrator for Hazardous Materials Safety, in the Research and Special Programs Administration of the Department of Transportation.
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    I appreciate the opportunity to discuss with you the Department's ongoing efforts to improve the safe transportation of hazardous materials, and our efforts to support the Nation's emergency responders. Our office administers a comprehensive nationwide safety program to protect the Nation from the risk to life, health, property and the environment in the transportation of hazardous materials. This transportation is a critical part of America's economy, and for the most part, it has an excellent safety record.
    Over the past 10 years, there have been an average of 22 deaths and 39 serious injuries per year due to hazardous materials in transportation. And half of those fatalities were the result of the ValuJet tragedy in 1996 in your State.
    While every casualty is one too many, in the context of 800,000 daily shipments, this is a remarkable record. Safety continues to be Secretary Slater's first priority. Because we take safety so seriously, the Department just completed a department-wide evaluation of its hazardous materials programs to improve strategic planning and coordination, program delivery and critical data needs.
    Our safety program focuses on four principal areas: regulations, training, enforcement and emergency response. I'd like to concentrate on emergency response today, and leave the other areas for my written statement.
    Despite our best efforts, accidents will occur, and we have the responsibility to help reduce the consequences of those accidents. Every three years, RSPA and our partners in Canada and Mexico publish an updated version of the Emergency Response Guidebook. It is used by first responders, firefighters, police and emergency services personnel as a guide for initial actions to be taken in those critical first few minutes after an incident to protect themselves and the general public. The Guidebook has been widely hailed as the single most valuable reference for initial response to hazardous materials emergencies.
    Of particular interest today, we operate a planning and training grants program to assist local responders at hazardous materials incidents. The importance of planning and training cannot be overemphasized. To a great extent, we are a Nation of small towns and rural communities served by volunteer fire departments. While there is growing awareness among small communities of the potential for hazardous materials incidents, many communities already are over-extended in their efforts to meet current emergency response needs.
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    Our grant program provides planning assistance to States, territories and Indian tribes, and through them to local communities. Grants are made to develop, improve and implement emergency plans, which may include hazardous materials flow patterns and the need for regional emergency response teams.
    Training grants are made to States, territories and Indian tribes for training local public sector employees to respond to our accidents. Over 815,000 emergency responders and others have been trained in part using our grant funds. Nevertheless, our grantees estimate they have approximately 2.3 million responders that need training nationwide. Planning and training grants are funded through registration fees paid by the hazardous materials community. Recent changes in the registration program will increase grant program funds from $8 million to $14 million this year.
    The grants program contains other important elements to assist the response community. RSPA provided a grant to the International Association of Firefighters last year to conduct train the trainer sessions throughout the Nation. About 200 State level hazardous materials instructors were certified to train local responders, resulting in about 9,400 local responders being certified at the operations level. Additional training sessions are planned this year.
    Providing technical assistance is another element of the grants program. We work closely with other agencies to evaluate the overall benefits and effectiveness of planning and training programs, and to share best practices amongst our grantees.
    Finally, RSPA coordinates a national cooperative effort to develop and update curriculum guidelines for hazardous materials training. We have distributed over 16,000 copies of the guidelines, which are used by our grantees to assess the quality of the courses they use.
    Hazardous materials play a crucial role in driving the American economy and helping the United States improve its standard of living. Our challenge is to maximize their contribution to the economy while minimizing their safety risks. We welcome that challenge, and look forward to working with you to sustain a first class hazardous materials transportation system.
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    Thank you. I'd be pleased to answer any questions.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you. I want to thank you both. I just have a few questions I'd like to ask, and I'll submit my others for the record.
    Mr. Burris, given certain current budget constraints, it is imperative that Congress have the best information possible to set the funding levels for a new grant program, especially when we're looking at doing it over the long term. What statistical data or needs surveys exist that can help us as we are trying to authorize a realistic funding stream? And do you recommend some sort of nationwide needs survey of fire and emergency services? And if so, how should that be conducted? Because as you know, we get asked a lot of questions up here, and we need to be able to have the figures to support what we are pushing forward.
    Mr. BURRIS. As far as needs surveys, the U.S. Fire Administration maintains statistical data as well as other organizations within the country, the International Association of Fire Fighters, the National Fire Protection Association, maintain death and injury rates for firefighters and civilian population as well. It would be my belief that it would just be a collation of that information that already exists to support the programs.
    Mrs. FOWLER. So you think the U.S. Fire Administration would be able to put something like that together for us?
    Mr. BURRIS. Yes, ma'am.
    Mrs. FOWLER. I know we're going to get asked questions as we go through this process, as you know, about backing this up, as to what the needs are and what we're looking to do with it. So that would help, if that's something maybe your organization could do.
    Does FEMA have in place right now sufficient administrative support to administer a $1 billion program, or even a $100 million program?
    Mr. BURRIS. No, ma'am, it does not.
    Mrs. FOWLER. So they would also need to beef up their administrative support side, if we can get any of this through.
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    Mr. BURRIS. That's correct.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Then we need to make sure, if you're looking at, say, just take the $100 million, you're going to have to either take some of that money for doing that, or get other money in order to have the administrative support program that you would need in FEMA?
    Mr. BURRIS. That's correct. We've done some preliminary research in the COPS program and talked to their executive director. It uses 121 people to administer that $1 billion.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Do you know about how much it costs, what their administrative support is, roughly?
    Mr. BURRIS. No, ma'am.
    Mrs. FOWLER. We can get that. I think that would be good for the record. Again, if you think you're getting $100 million to go help our firefighters, and then all of a sudden you find out a big portion of that is having to be used for administrative support, we need to make sure we are aware of what dollars we're talking about, and is there another way we can get those, or is it going to have to come out of there. These are the sorts of things we're going to have to be looking at, because we want to make sure every dollar we can goes straight to where it should go, which is to our local firefighters. Thank you.
    Mr. McGuire, H.R. 3155, was earlier explained by Congressman Gekas, and introduced by him. You're here because it would require the Secretary of Transportation to implement a grant program to assist firefighters and States with a low interest loan program. Would the Research and Special Programs Administration within DOT be prepared to undertake such a program? And what would we need to do to get it ready to do that, then?
    Mr. MCGUIRE. Certainly that would depend upon the exact details of how the grant program would be administered. Currently our grant program is operated by two people. We can do that because the program is a formula grant, it is very specific as to how it is laid out, how the allocations are made. So it becomes a relatively simple administrative program.
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    If we get into a competitive situation amongst grantees and so forth, we may have more difficulty. But I think we could do it.
    Mrs. FOWLER. These are areas we're going to be looking at, because again, we want every dollar to get back to the local area and not build any more Federal bureaucracy than we've got, if we can help it, and get it back home.
    I want to ask you, Mr. Burris, should the Federal Government be spending more on prevention initiatives to mitigate against fire and other hazards. I don't know if you heard my comments earlier about the bill that's sitting over in the Senate.
    Mr. BURRIS. Prevention initiatives are an important component in the overall addressing of the fire death and injury rate in this country. But the very safety of the people that provide the service is a core issue that these grants are trying to address.
    Mrs. FOWLER. I think we've got parallel issues here. If we can get the disaster mitigation bill through the Senate, we could get it signed into law this year. There is time. And that would be one step forward, as we are working also on getting those resources there. So we need to get everybody weighing in on that.
    Interesting, Mr. Burris, because I know we've been talking about Federal spending. The staff have pulled together some figures. Roughly, right now, the Federal Government is spending about $425 million annually on helping with our firefighting. That goes, some of it, through U.S. Fire Administration, some of it through helping rural fire departments with excess Federal properties, some of it through the counter-terrorism assistance that's going through the NDPO and some through the Volunteer Fire Assistance program. But it all adds up to $425 million.
    Again, it's interesting when you start looking at how much of that is really getting where we want it to go. So there are a lot of dollars out there now that aren't maybe getting right home where we need them to go. So we're going to be reviewing those, too, to see what we can do to get more of it back where it should be on the local level.
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    Looking at our States, you published a document that provides funding alternatives for fire and emergency services, and have the fire services, we've looked at the States, and they are sitting there, just overall, the States have about a $27 billion surplus. Because when we did welfare reform, we allowed our States over the next five years to keep the money they weren't spending on welfare and Medicaid for the States. So they've got big surpluses.
    I heard from the video that Congressman Pascrell provided, of the difficulties firefighters were having in getting their State to put resources in, even though most of these States are sitting on surpluses.
    Do you think we're exhausting all of our possibilities? Because this is the hand in glove. And if you looked at most of these, they are matching types of grant situations. What can we be doing to make sure that our State and local governments are also being prodded along and doing their part in this? Because we don't want the States to think, oh, we're going to have this large Federal grant program and we're off the hook. This is a partnership and we all need to be working together. Any suggestions you might have would be great.
    Mr. BURRIS. Do I have any right now?
    Mrs. FOWLER. Yes.
    [Laughter.]
    Mr. BURRIS. It's been my past experience that there's not a lot of State involvement in the fire services other than just training. It's been left to the local level to fund it operationally.
    I think that's the unique part of these grants programs, is it bypasses the State and goes straight to the local department.
    Mrs. FOWLER. But if you've got a matching grant, which a lot of these are, then the locals are going to have to find that money one way or another.
    Mr. BURRIS. Each bill has a different level of matching in it, all the way from no matching to 50 percent.
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    Mrs. FOWLER. I've got some rural areas that would have a tough time with that. And they've got to turn around and look, are they going to get some support locally, too. Thank you.
    I'll submit the rest of my questions for the record.
    I want to again thank both of you for all that you've done to help us with this. We continue to look forward to working with you then.
    Well, we're ahead of the vote, so we'll keep moving. Thank you again.
    I'd now like to call our last panel of witnesses. We have Chief Luther Fincher representing the International Association of Fire Chiefs; Chief William Jenaway, King of Prussia Volunteer Fire Company; Mr. Fred Nesbitt, Director of Governmental and Political Action, International Association of Fire Fighters; Mr. James Monihan, representing the National Volunteer Fire Council.
    And Ms. Noreen Lucey, sister of firefighter Jeremiah Lucey, who died in the tragic Worcester, Massachusetts warehouse fire that occurred last December. And I just want to offer my sympathy for the loss of your brother and to the other families who suffered such a great loss in that tragic fire. I want to thank you for taking the time to travel to Washington.
    Then we also have Mr. Frank Raffa, Worcester Firefighter and President of Worcester Firefighters Union, Local 1009. If you would all stand and raise your right hand.
    Do you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
    [All witnesses respond in the affirmative.]
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you. Please be seated. And as I stated earlier, we ask if you could summarize your testimony in five minutes, because we're going to try to stay ahead of these votes that are coming up. And without objection, we will submit each of your full statements into the official record.
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    Chief Fincher, if you would begin.
TESTIMONY OF CHIEF LUTHER L. FINCHER, JR., CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA FIRE DEPARTMENT. AND PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS; WILLIAM F. JENAWAY, CFPS, CHIEF, FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICES, KING OF PRUSSIA VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY; E. JAMES MONIHAN, FORMER CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL VOLUNTEER FIRE COUNCIL, STATE DIRECTOR, DELAWARE NATIONAL VOLUNTEER FIRE COUNCIL; FREDERICK H. NESBITT, DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS; NOREEN LUCEY, WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS; AND FRANK RAFFA, PRESIDENT, WORCESTER FIREFIGHTERS UNION, LOCAL 1009

    Chief FINCHER. Madam Chair, members of the Subcommittee, I'm Luther Fincher, Chief of the Charlotte, North Carolina Fire Department. I'm appearing today as President of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
    We represent the leadership of our Nation's fire and emergency service organizations. I would like to thank you for holding this hearing and allowing us to support H.R. 1168 by Representative Pascrell as well as other Congressional and administrative proposals to assist the Nation's fire and emergency services.
    I have three goals today. First, I want the Committee to understand that the fire service does much more than put out fires and provide emergency medical services. Second and most importantly, I want to ask you to change your view and see the fire service in a new light. The fire service is organized locally so that it can respond to individual needs and threats within each community.
    However, local fire services collectively carry out one of the most important national missions. They protect and defend our Nation's critical infrastructure, the people, the places and things that allow our economy, our country, even our way of life, to function every day.
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    Third, after I accomplish my first two goals, I want to ask the Federal Government to assign the Fire and Emergency Services the same priority and attention that it does to other essential national resources, to make this country what it is today and will be tomorrow.
    A total of today's public fire service is estimated to be more than 30,000 departments with approximately 1.1 million members. Today's fire and emergency services has evolved beyond putting out fires and turned into an all hazards risk management organization. This is most evident in recently enacted P.L. 106–151, authored by Representative Robert Ehrlich. That defines firefighter in the Fair Labor Standards Act as an employee who ''is engaged in the prevention, control and extinguishment of fires or response to emergency situations where life, property, or the environment is at risk.''
    Even today's fires have radically changed. While technology has improved firefighter safety, new materials and chemicals coming to the market constantly pose even greater threats than ever before. As communities expand, urban wildland fires threaten more and more populated areas. On the Nation's interstates and its industrial sites, the fire service is often confronted with deadly threats, even when no fire is present, such as hazardous materials spills and releases caused by accident or by persons or by a group with destructive intent.
    Another example is the joint response with law enforcement to shut down clandestine drug labs containing potential explosive materials. In larger communities and many smaller ones, the fire service responds to more calls involving emergency medical care than all other types of incidents, often providing the highest level of emergency treatment available outside the hospital. This standard of care is constantly rising and imposing new challenges.
    Fire service ambulances transport the majority of patients going to our Nation's emergency departments. Here, too, the fire service faces numerous risks, ranging from infectious diseases to violent and dangerous patients.
    We also respond to a growing number of incidents that require highly specialized rescue skills and equipment. The fire service is there when the child is trapped in the well, or struggles in swift moving water. The fire service acts to bring in the injured construction worker safely down to the ground, digs through collapsed trench or buildings and enters the confined space of industrial tank when the person cleaning it is overcome and collapses.
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    The fire service is there when nature strikes as well. We were there when the California earthquakes, when the great Mississippi River flooded, and when hurricanes Andrew and Hugo blew through our communities. The fire service was there, too, when Hurricane Floyd devastated my own home State of North Carolina, where many fire departments sustained significant damage or were totally lost.
    Natural disasters are not the only unpredictable threat, though. The fire service skills continue to be challenged by the terrorist who wishes to destroy the lives of others. These skills were put to the test when brave men and women were organized within the local fire departments to respond to the Federal building disaster in Oklahoma City, as FEMA supported urban search and rescue teams.
    However, the terrorist threat today may not be a device containing just fertilizer and fuel oil. Today it may be a device containing nuclear, biological or a chemical weapon. The fire service has to be ready for that. Our very freedom is at stake if we cannot respond.
    We do not choose when to respond. We must respond every time a call for help is made. It is impossible to eliminate all the risks from the wide variety of dangers we face. Given this challenge, the fire service is obligated to take all reasonable steps to train and equip our personnel so they can operate as safely as possible.
    Fire departments are organized within their communities, allowing them to adapt to the specific local needs and threats, be it the protection of an industrial site, or a large population of workers in the technical or office environment. However, what binds the Nation's fire service together is a single resource in our Nation's mission, to protect human and physical treasures that allow the economy to run and the country to thrive.
    If we fail this mission, the Nation fails. For instance, hazardous materials travel on the interstate, on the railroad tracks, through the air and on the water. Without the Nation's fire service standing by, our citizens would not have the peace of mind to allow this transport and commerce to take place.
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    Our role in protecting commerce also extends to the buildings and workers who carry out the electronic communication and financial business fueling our Nation's economy. Three years ago, the Presidential Commission identified the fire service as integral to the protection of our Nation's critical infrastructure. It must be assigned the same priority given to other essential components that make up the very fabric of our Nation.
    We are our Nation's domestic defenders. We are based locally but share a national responsibility to protect our Nation from all forms of disasters. Today, we're asking Congress to better understand the fire service mission and to realize that it is a vital national resource, based in each community, worthy of the highest attention.
    Thank you, and I'll be available for questions.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you.
    Chief Jenaway?
    Chief JENAWAY. Thank you, Chairwoman Fowler, for the opportunity to present some concerns from the field today.
    I represent the King of Prussia Volunteer Fire Company, which is the major suburb to the north and west of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I'd like to begin relating my concerns to the story line of a well known movie. Like a visionary, a voice in the movie Field of Dreams, pronounced, if you build it, he will come. In many cases, the same philosophy exists within government. If we build something and there is a problem, the fire department will come.
    However, unlike the Field of Dreams, where the owner pays taxes for the infrastructure and related services of the ball field, the Federal Government often expects service to be provided and may not provide any compensation or expense reduction, or it may be little by comparison of need. Let me elaborate with a few snapshots.
    I have a Federal facility in my community that generally provides a stipend for service. However, that stipend is generally exhausted in the first quarter of each year. A neighboring community has approximately half of their responses to interstate highway, yet receives no money for this service.
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    Last week, the same community received a call from the staff of a Federal official seeking assistance for an upcoming visit. I asked why this same group should take time from work and family to support such a request.
    You might ask about State and local support. The community I referenced has 1,000 residents. Why should they have to be burdened by Federal Government impacts? My community leadership is great, I cannot ask for more. But an interstate highway we respond to had five major accidents last year, including three fatalities, extensive resource utilization, no compensation to me, my volunteers or my community.
    Why should I as a local taxpayer be burdened by this? In fact, I'm somewhat annoyed by the fact that I have to now raise thousands of dollars as a volunteer firefighter to cover this deficit.
    Pennsylvania's leadership is also great. They listen and they act. Our low interest loan fund has helped many departments buy equipment and facilities. But even at 2 percent interest, it's still a burden to some departments. We're currently working to change the insurance premium tax program in Pennsylvania to better benefit all fire departments in the State. Our State legislators do listen, and they do act accordingly.
    You should already see, though, that the support can come in many ways, not as a simple handout, and we don't ask for simple handouts. It should be a structured business approach to an effective financial management to provide necessary levels of protection.
    Soon, these individual snapshots will begin to make a story, and then a movie. But a story line that is a recurring one. Local emergency services are not supported by all those entities who generate problems or issues for them to react to. And they should be compensated fair and adequately.
    Please appreciate the cause and effect relationship created when there are enacted training equipment minimums or regulations without resources and funding locally. Even the best and most well to do will not meet the expectation being set.
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    My budget is established on a five year program. Anything you implement and mandate today would not be considered in a budgetary process for at least three years. My department was the first in our county to receive the DOD terrorism awareness training. We unfortunately were not able to provide any type of equipment for the first 18 months because of budgetary requirements.
    My written testimony really lacks a closure line. And I did that on purpose, because I want to make clear one point. In my 30 years of service to communities, I have repeatedly seen those agencies who do their jobs professionally and efficiently to be punished at all levels of Government in the budgetary process. The well-known public policy textbook known as Reinventing Government, by Osborne and Gabler, makes the statement that many public entities tend to fund failure. If you have problems, you get more money at the expense of those who do a good job.
    I challenge you and your peers that on the whole, the fire service of this country does its job professionally and efficiently time and time again. I suggest to you that because we have not failed at our job, we have not been funded appropriately. Fire is, I believe, a local, regional and national scenario. Each level of government has its component of creating situations, mandating service. Each has its responsibility of resolving the problem, not based on levels of failure, but based on levels of proactive management of potentially dangerous situations.
    We don't hesitate to adequately fund, train, protect and equip those who protect our shorelines and our air space. Why should we conceptually not adequately fund, train, protect and equip those who serve as our domestic defenders, the fire service of America?
    Thank you again for the opportunity, and I'll be happy to answer any questions.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Chief.
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    Mr. Monihan?
    Mr. MONIHAN. Thank you, Madam Chairman and members of the Committee. My name is James Monihan, I'm former chairman of the National Volunteer Fire Council and currently serve as its director from Delaware.
    I'm a firefighter in Lewes Fire Department in Lewes, Delaware, where I've served for 43 years, and I still respond regularly to calls. I've had experience in all phases of the life of the first responder, including chemical and hazardous materials incidents, EMS, rescue and fire, and yes, the cat in the tree. On behalf of the volunteer fire service, I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the needs of America's volunteer fire service addressed in H.R. 1168 and H.R. 3155. We sincerely appreciate the efforts of Congressmen Pascrell, Weldon and Gekas.
    NVFC strongly supports both pieces of legislation. America's fire and emergency services are in need of your assistance. And you as members of Congress can make a significant difference.
    The Council provides a voice for nearly 1 million men and women who staff 28,000 volunteer fire departments across this Nation. I have submitted written testimony and would be glad to answer any questions.
    There is no doubt that we need financial assistance. And believe me, I have experience in the past 43 years in asking for it. I've gone door to door, I've spent Sunday afternoons sitting by a collection can next to an ambulance in a shopping center. And I've seen other volunteers pass collection boots at traffic intersections while the light was red. In fact, we had one community that didn't have a traffic light, so they were stopping the traffic. Somebody didn't have a sense of humor, and that caused a little problem, but they got the job done, they got the money.
    [Laughter.]
    Mr. MONIHAN. In addition to the grant money that would be provided by these pieces of legislation, there are additional ways in which you can partner in our efforts to keep our citizens and their property safe. Recently, the Council's legislative and executive committee and Congressman Weldon discussed the needs of the fire service. We agreed to provide him with a list of ways that Congress could help our efforts. We divided these into several categories.
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    These included technology development and transfer. There are technologies both on the market and being developed in governmental agencies, such as the military, that could be invaluable to America's first responders. For example, we understand there are global positioning capabilities available today that can pinpoint the location of an individual in a forest. Team this up with currently available thermal imaging equipment that allows us to locate a person in poor visibility like smoke, and you have the potential to make our job a lot safer and more efficient, when you can locate a lost firefighter quickly.
    Just considering this single combination of technologies, one has to wonder if the outcome of the recent tragedy in Worcester might have had a much different outcome.
    Certainly we need funds. We need funds also if we're going to be able to afford the purchase of this equipment. But access is the first step.
    Another category is assistance in grant writing. Many departments, especially small ones, don't have the expertise to write grants for currently available private foundation funds, let alone government grants. And assistance would be invaluable. This needs to be included in the legislation.
    Another category is communication technology and equipment. During large incidents involving several jurisdictions, fire departments often cannot communicate due to differences in radio equipment. This occurs very frequently in wildland and forest fires, where we work with Federal and State agencies, but cannot communicate with them. And on the line, this makes our efforts very difficult and also dangerous.
    Other categories identified included personal protective equipment, training and public education programs. Also of importance, we identified the refurbishment of equipment and apparatus. Many fire departments do not need nor have the means to support brand new fire engines. By providing departments the ability to refurbish their apparatus, dollars can be allocated to such critical things as personal protective equipment and training.
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    In my written testimony, I speak of departments whose first run equipment dates to the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. This is very common among fire departments across this country, believe it or not. For instance, we're aware of a department in Ozark County, Missouri, which protects 150 square miles on a budget of sixty-five hundred dollars, hundred, not thousand, sixty-five hundred dollars a year.
    About $2,200 of this is spent on insurance premiums. The remaining roughly $4,000 covers fuel, upkeep of equipment, any upgrades they can make. Half that money is made from a fund raiser the department holds, the other half is made through membership dues.
    Their one pumper is from 1955. Their water tanker is a converted fuel truck from 1964, and they're using a brush truck that was built in 1946. That covers all three decades.
    The department has four sets of self-contained breathing apparatus that NFPA standards say should have been retired a long time ago. If they need to go into a burning building, they wear sweatpants over their blue jeans. There is one ambulance in the county that is 40 minutes away, if it's not committed. In addition, it may take as long as an hour and ten minutes for a rescue tool commonly called the jaws of life to reach the scene of an auto accident or other incident.
    It's old, but it's all they have, and they take care of it. But time catches up with it. If the department is to protect its people, they need help in rehabilitating their equipment.
    Along the same line, we're experiencing many natural disasters nationwide. The Government could help significantly by warehousing equipment as well as apparatus in various parts of its regions around the country that could be loaned to fire departments who have lost theirs due to fires, floods, tornadoes, and other such incidents to reestablish fire protection in these communities when they are so vulnerable.
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    Currently these folks have to make do with little or nothing and pray a lot, or if they're very lucky, other departments will be kind enough to donate equipment to them. This is done quite frequently, including the volunteer departments of Delaware, who have sent several pieces of apparatus and other equipment where it is needed.
    Many of these things which I've discussed do require funding that is currently unavailable. And any help you can give us is greatly appreciated. Be assured it will be put to good use to protect our citizens and your constituents.
    Finally, we recommend that any funding, and this is along the line of what you were talking about, Madam Chairman, with the administrative fees, we recommend that any funding that's provided for the fire service is handled in a manner similar to the volunteer fire assistance program. In that program, almost all the monies appropriated go to the intended purpose of the fire service, because it's structured in such a way that the funding cannot be diverted and it's no eaten up in administrative fees. How that's done, I don't know. But it works.
    Thank you, and if you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Mr. Monihan.
    Mr. Nesbitt?
    Mr. NESBITT. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity, Madam Chairman, to represent the views of 230,000 professional firefighters and emergency medical personnel on the need to provide Federal funding to protect firefighter health and safety.
    The IAFF strongly supports H.R. 1168, and we urge the Congress to enact the bill immediately. I believe the testimony today makes the case for the bill.
    Each year there are a million structural fires in the United States. Firefighters respond to these emergencies, often lacking staffing, training and equipment, setting up the potential for firefighter line of duty deaths and injuries. Since December, 1999, after the incident in Worcester where we lost six firefighters, we have also lost brothers and sisters in Kansas City, Missouri, Revere, Massachusetts, Keokuk, Iowa, Houston, Texas, and Memphis, Tennessee.
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    Who will forget the memorial service for the six fallen firefighters in Worcester televised live on CNN? It was an event that touched all of us.
    Each year, one-third of our 230,000 members suffer injuries requiring medical treatment. Roof collapses, falling through floors, heat exhaustion, smoke inhalation, being knocked off ladders, burns, and the list goes on. Madam Chairman, this is unacceptable. We have an obligation and a moral responsibility to protect these heroes who protect us.
    A majority of the deaths and injuries firefighters suffer are preventable. NIOSH does investigations of all firefighter fatalities and it has concluded that there are correctable problems: proper training, equipment, adequate staffing and other things save firefighters' lives. Unfortunately, firefighter health and safety is the last priority in the department budget, and is always the first to be cut.
    When the firefighters in this room raised their right hands and take an oath to serve and protect, they accept the fact that this is the most dangerous job. They accept the fact that firefighters will be injured and yes, some will die. They even accept the fact that they could be the one who is injured or the one who could die.
    But what they don't accept is that most of the causes of injuries and deaths are preventable. We are subjecting our firefighters to a number of situations which I want to briefly just mention. In West Bend, Wisconsin, there is unsafe staffing where the fire department staffs three firefighters per apparatus. So when the first apparatus arrives at the scene of the fire, they do not comply with OSHA's safe fire ground regulation two-in/two-out. And they cannot initiate interior fire suppression. This is unsafe and courting disaster
    In Battle Creek, Michigan, due to budget cutbacks, the city has only one training officer. Vital firefighter training is being delayed or canceled. In Washington, D.C., firefighters do not have a training facility to conduct live fire training. The training facility literally fell apart.
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    Madam Chairman, I brought you a picture of the training facility that fell apart and is no longer used in Washington, D.C. I hope that you will have a chance to take a look at it.
    Many of our training facilities across this country, Madam Chairman, have no running water. Many of the same facilities don't even have bathrooms. If these facilities were owned by private parties, they would be condemned and shut down.
    In Corpus Christi, Beaumont and Galveston County, Texas, home to giant petrochemical companies, the training firefighters are getting focuses primarily on structural firefighting, and only touches on hazmat response. And firefighters are unnecessarily risking their lives because their personal protective equipment is worn out, defective or missing. A firefighter in Wisconsin wrote, ''There is always a high priority and there is never enough money.''
    In Memphis, NIOSH reported that the department's self-contained breathing apparatus maintenance program was deficient, and one of the conclusions reached was that the deaths of two firefighters could have been prevented if the department had implemented an adequate respirator maintenance program.
    Firefighter communications are constantly disrupted when they enter most buildings. The radios themselves are poorly designed for use in the fire service. What is truly sad about the state of communications in the fire service is that the members of Congress, with your state of the art telecommunications, have better communication equipment than most firefighters have when they are inside a burning building trying to initiate fire suppression or search for trapped victims and this must change.
    Wellness-fitness programs reduce injuries by emphasizing physical conditioning and maintaining firefighters' flexibility and strength. Wellness-fitness programs we know reduce injuries and save lives. Yet less than 1 percent of the fire departments have implemented this program.
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    In many departments, annual fitness tests are canceled. Stress tests are canceled, because there is not enough money. And as a consequence, we are losing experienced firefighters to illness, to injuries and to death
    Mrs. FOWLER. If you could wind up so we could hear our next two witnesses.
    Mr. NESBITT. Yes, I am. Therefore, Madam Chairman, we ask you to support H.R. 1168 by enacting this particular bill, so that many of these deficiencies can be addressed through the grants program that is provided in the bill. Thank you.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you. What I was afraid of occurring has now occurred. We've got 45 minutes worth of votes. So I want to go move right on ahead. We've got about 10 minutes before we have to be over on the floor to vote. So if we could hear from Ms. Lucey, because it's very important that we hear from you and from Chief Raffa.
    Ms. LUCEY. My name is Noreen Lucey. I am the only sister of Firefighter Jeremiah Lucey, that was killed in Worcester. And I'm bringing a personal side to this, so that you're able to put a face to an issue.
    On the night of December 3rd, 1999, at 6:13 p.m., an alarm sounded to Box 1348 at the Worcester Fire Department. The on-duty firefighters suited up and within minutes arrived at the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse.
    The firefighters were told that the abandoned building had been inhabited by homeless. My only sibling, my best friend, Firefighter Jeremiah Lucey, entered the building with his colleague, Firefighter Paul Brotherton, to search for persons that may be trapped and in danger. This is their duty. This is simply what they do.
    There were engine and ladder companies on the roof and lower floors fighting the fire. In a matter of minutes, the conditions in the building changed, and the warehouse was filled with thick, black smoke, causing zero visibility. The fire chief at the scene faced a horrible decision and had to call all clear, evacuating the building. A head count was completed, Jerry and Paul were missing.
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    They had communication with the chief, came through as, mayday, mayday, we are running out of air. When the chief responded and asked where they were, they answered, we are two floors below the roof, we are lost. They had become disoriented from the blackness.
    Lieutenant Thomas Spencer, Firefighters Timothy Jackson, James Lyons and Joseph McGuerk began the frantic search for their brothers and for mine. None of them ever returned. And our families waited.
    Seven days after the fire began, a memorial service was held for our fallen heroes. We, the families, watched as nearly 40,000 of our brother firefighters descended on Worcester to pay respect to their fallen brothers. You see, this was an issue of family to them as well.
    They came from all over the United States, and indeed, from around the world. It's just what they do.
    The city streets were an ocean of blue, and we waited. Nine days after the fire began, it was still smoldering. We watched as our brothers knelt, sifting through the ashes and rubble, trying to find their lost family. Not one of them ever lost hope. No one stopped, their own grief and fatigue was pushed aside.
    Nine days after the fire began, they completed their task. They returned their fallen brothers to us. God help them, it's just what they do.
    Those nine days were a lifetime. There are no words to describe the torture of that wait. But to look into the eyes of any member of these families, or to see the faces of the firefighters searching for their brothers is enough. The world watched and grieved with us.
    We have become members of a new family, not of our choosing. There are members of our new family all over the country, and indeed, the world. The bond we share is the love and the loss of one of our family members lost in the line of duty.
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    Congressman Pascrell came to Massachusetts to the memorial service to pay respect to our loved ones. And we were honored at the support and care that was expressed by all of the dignitaries who attended. It was a short time later that we learned that the Congressman had lost a close friend in the line of duty. The loss of this firefighter prompted him to write this bill, and the loss of my brother led me to call him to offer my help.
    In 1999 alone, the final figure came in at 110 firefighters killed doing the job that they loved. They are an extraordinary group that share a calling, the ability to put their own safety aside to save life and property. It's just what they do.
    Throughout my brother's professional firefighting career and my professional nursing career, we would often discuss the obligation we have to care for others. We could only surmise that we were the product of our parents, Irish immigrants who came to America for a better life. They taught us to always give back to our community and our country.
    There were many times that Jerry would talk of the lack of funding to provide for the needs of firefighters. He kept up on the newest and best technologies becoming available to firefighters, and how items like a thermal imaging camera could make their job safer and aid them in finding victims of fire more rapidly. Little did we know that this item could have made a difference for our six brothers as well.
    As the father of two little boys, Jeremiah and John, Jerry would spend hours with them, talking to them about the danger of fire, how to avoid it and what to do if they discovered it. In essence, he taught them to respect his enemy.
    He often spoke to me of the lack of ability to provide adequate training for children and the necessity to provide continuing education for firefighters, as do nurses. He articulated that decreased numbers of firefighters nationwide will put active firefighters at increased risk for injury and death. This puts whole communities at risk, and this is not acceptable.
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    This is why we are here today to speak to you, and why this bill is so important to all Americans. There are few places in this country that you will ever go that you won't find somebody who knows or is related to a firefighter. These are the people we all turn to when we are in need. They are the first responder to any cry for help and they are the people's security.
    On any given day that there is a fire or an emergency reported, I ask that you only watch. When a building is burning and its occupants are running to escape it, the only ones you'll see running into it are our brothers, those chosen few who heard a call and answered it.
    Paul Brotherton, Thomas Spencer, Timothy Jackson, James Lyons, Joseph McGuerk and my brother, Jeremiah Lucey, answered the call. The countless others who have died in the line of duty did the same, making the supreme sacrifice. It is just what they do.
    There are hundreds of thousands who are still answering our calls. They deserve our support in simply trying to do their job. The bill shows support and provides for a very critical need of this Nation.
    At our brothers' memorial service, Senator Edward Kennedy read from a private family letter dealing with death and loss. He read, sometimes life just breaks your heart. We know of no better way to start to heal than to ask that our firefighters be provided the training, equipment and education and staffing that they need to do their jobs. We are asking your support and approval of the FIRE Act, and in doing so, take comfort in the ability to say, that's just what we do.
    I thank you for your time.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Ms. Lucey.
    We've got three minutes before we have to go vote, but Chief Raffa, if you'd just like to make a brief statement. Because I know there are several members that have to vote, and I'd hate to have you wait for 45 minutes before we get back. If you'll be brief, we'll submit the whole statement for the record, though.
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    Mr. RAFFA. Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Frank Raffa, I'm a Worcester firefighter, I'm the President of Worcester Firefighters Local 1009.
    On Friday, December 3, 1999, Box 1438 was struck for a reported fire at the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse at 266 Franklin Street. No one could foresee, even in their worst nightmare, the tragedy that was about to occur on that cold winter night. Before the last of the flames were finally extinguished on that fateful night, six of our brothers would love their lives battling a fire in what has been known as the building from hell.
    This was easily the worst tragedy to befall our department in its history of existence. The brothers who lost their lives, Firefighter Paul Brotherton, Firefighter Jeremiah Lucey, Fire Lieutenant Thomas Spencer, Firefighter Tim Jackson, Firefighter James Lyons and Firefighter Joseph McGuerk did so doing their jobs in the highest tradition of the fire service.
    When it was reported at the scene that there was a possibility of two homeless people still in the building, Firefighters Brotherton and Lucey of Rescue One, without regard for their own safety, went inside to search for the victims. With conditions rapidly deteriorating, the word that two firefighters were unaccounted for, Lieutenant Spencer and Firefighter Jackson of Ladder Two and Firefighters Lyons and McGuerk of Engine Three, again without any hesitation, entered the building to search for their brothers.
    Firefighters do not regard themselves as heroes. And in the best traditions of the fire service, without regard to a person's economic or social status, these men, along with many others, went in that building for the sole purpose of rendering assistance to those in danger.
    Unfortunately in the end, all six of our brothers would lose their lives performing the bravest act known to man. After the holidays of 1999 ended with nine more firefighter deaths, including three firefighters and three children from Keokuk, Iowa, more than two weeks after the Worcester tragedy, words seemed even more barren.
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    Clearly, we have progressed little at the end of the 20th century, and we cannot continue to bear these losses. Words truly aren't enough any more. We hope to make the deadly December fire at the building from hell a catalyst for historic change for our Nation's firefighters. While America ended the century with unparalleled economic prosperity, most of our fire departments continue to operate with funding shortfalls. And American firefighters and citizens are paying the price with their lives.
    Clearly, the current system does not provide adequate funding for all these needs. Is there really a difference between providing grants for bullet proof vests and staffing for police offices and providing grants for staffing and thermal imaging cameras for firefighters?
    To reiterate the importance of H.R. 1168, after the terrible tragedy that occurred in my city, the City of Worcester, had the grants monies, which would have been available under the FIRE Act, been in place, the terrible loss that we not only suffered by the entire Nation experienced, may have been averted.
    Firefighters across this Nation play an important role in the public safety network. Whether it be an act of terrorism, a hazmat incident or a natural disaster, building fires, emergency medical calls or rescues from the highest mountains to the deepest confined spaces underground, firefighters will be the first on the scene and the last to leave.
    H.R. 1168 creates a new fire grant program that allows communities to apply for grant funds to purchase personal protective gear and equipment, wellness and fitness programs, training, additional staffing, communications and monitoring equipment which enhance firefighter safety. On behalf of the families of our six fallen brothers and firefighters from across this great Nation, I would personally like to thank the Committee for giving me the opportunity to address our concerns and ask for your continued support on this important piece of legislation.
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    Thank you.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you.
    We're about to miss our vote, so I want to thank each of the witnesses here. I want to thank Congressman McGovern, who has been here throughout the hearing today, and for all of his efforts.
    Mr. MCGOVERN. And I just want to acknowledge Michelle Lucey, who is here, who is the wife of Firefighter Jeremiah Lucey. She's been here all day, as well as the Chief of the Fire Department of Worcester, Dennis Budd. I think they made the case that needs to be made for this bill, no community should have to go through what Worcester's gone through, no family should have to suffer like these people have. We need to pass this bill.
    Thank you. And thank you for your generosity.
    Mrs. FOWLER. Thank you, Congressman McGovern. I didn't want you to have to sit here and wait for 45 minutes. So we're going to run now to make our vote. But thank you all for your testimony today. Each one of the witnesses before us has really provided some very useful information for the Subcommittee.
    I served on my local city council for seven years. So I know what you do every day, day in and out. I want to thank every one of you here in the room who are representing the brave men and women in this country who serve as firefighters. We do appreciate all that you do, and we look froward to working with you in this effort.
    Thank you so much again. This concludes the hearing. The Subcommittee is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 4:01 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

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