Nick Smith: “we all should thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Gallegly) for bringing this to our attention. It moves the…”

“we all should thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Gallegly) for bringing this to our attention. It moves the mandatory retirement age from 55 up to 57. The fact that this is the first piece of legislation this new body is considering I think helps demonstrate the esteem with which this Congress holds the Nation's firefighters, its first responders. This bill corrects an inequity. We owe, I think, a great debt to what are some of the heroes of this country. We have 1.2 million firefighters in this Nation. Over 90 percent are volunteers. That means they are out risking their lives to help us. They truly are the first responders. We made a lot of progress, I think, towards reinforcing the fact that this Congress supports firefighters. In this last session, we appropriated $100 million in grants to cost share with local communities to make sure that they have the equipment; that they have the personnel; that they have the capable training they need. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to support H.R. 93 as the next step in our efforts to address issues of concern to the fire community.”