John Kerry: “In February of this year, I sent a letter to the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services…”

“In February of this year, I sent a letter to the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services regarding a report from the Centers for Disease Control that actually blocked an investigation into the death of six firefighters whose personal safety equipment had failed them between 1998 and the year 2000. In the response to me, the inspector general reported that funding of the current funds that exist in the Firefighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Fund within the National Institutes of Occupational Health and Safety is flat. Their resources are such that they have had to pick and choose where they can conduct those kinds of investigations. Every year, about 100 firefighters die in the line of duty in America and about 87,000 are injured. This fund is an investigative fund that helps find ways in which we can protect firefighter lives--whether there is a certain kind of equipment that might have made a difference or a certain procedure that might have made a difference. Obviously, for those fire stations, fire houses with the losses or those that face a future risk, to know we are selectively choosing where we investigate and where we do not does not do the job. We need to investigate all of those fatalities, and we need to do everything possible to provide our firefighters the procedures and equipment necessary to save lives.”