Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to speak on a broadly bipartisan amendment that I have filed, and that I hope and believe will be called up at some point. Obviously, I would like it to be adopted by unanimous consent but, if not, it merits a rollcall vote, and I am confident it will be addressed on a rollcall vote. This amendment is amendment No. 3090 to this National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. It will reauthorize two very important and very broadly supported programs--the Assistance to Firefighters, AFG, Program--which otherwise used to be known as FIRE, the FIRE Act--and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Program, known as SAFER. This amendment also reauthorizes the U.S. Fire Administration for 5 years, an agency which is a component of FEMA that is focused on supporting firefighters and EMS personnel. This amendment reauthorizes AFG and SAFER for 5 years but it also takes much needed steps to ensure that the firefighters not only have the equipment, vehicles, and personnel that we need them to have to do the jobs they do for us in our country every day, the amendment also helps departments in communities struggling with economic difficulties, creating a hardship waiver for both of these fire programs--AFG and SAFER--that allows FEMA to waive requirements in communities that have been hard hit in these tough economic times. Some people might say: Well, why has the Federal Government established these programs to support firefighting?…”