Political Quotes

“as chairman of the committee that oversees the Federal Fire Administration, I would like to suggest that it is about time we really started helping communities across America by helping firemen. Today in the United States there are over 1 million fire fighters and 77 percent are volunteers. If we had to pay all of these volunteers, we would be spending billions of dollars more in property tax coming out of taxpayers' pockets. Last year I worked with the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) and others to get $100 million into this program. This amendment is going to increase that by $50 million to $150 million. I think it is important to mention that in 1999 there were 45,000 fire fighters injured and 112 fire fighters killed in duty-related incidents. These men and women are American heroes. They are truly our first responders. They are the ones that are at the scene when there is natural disasters. They are the ones at the scene when there is shootings in school, chemical spills, terrorism, looking for lost kids, or getting the kitten out of a tree. We give billions of dollars to law enforcement in this country. It is time we gave a few dollars to help local communities and help the first responders of this Nation. This amendment would increase the funding allocation to help local fire departments hire new firefighters, purchase new safety equipment, and provide improved training. These men and women are American heroes. They are truly first responders.”