James Oberstar: “I love the enthusiasm of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Chairman. He can get fired up and enthusiastic, but let me…”

“I love the enthusiasm of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Chairman. He can get fired up and enthusiastic, but let me make it clear to this body that the gentleman from Pennsylvania does not speak alone for firefighters across America. They have been misguided. I do not know who wrote their position paper for them, but it is clear that the firefighters that I have talked to in my district have said we did not think this is a particularly good idea. FEMA works well now. What is going to happen to the Office of Fire Training and the small grants for small communities when this effective agency is swallowed up into the guts of a huge bureaucracy of 170,000 people? And for all the enthusiasm of my good friend, and I admire this gentleman and we have worked together on a number of matters, for all his enthusiasm, Mr. Chairman, I warrant we will be back here a year from now when the gentleman from Pennsylvania and others who might be so misguided as to vote for keeping the position of the Select Committee on Homeland Security, be back here saying, what has happened to the money? We need more funds for FEMA; we need more funds for firefighting. It is being swallowed up by the Department; these dollars have been shifted around. Does the gentleman from Pennsylvania have a firewall to protect the funds for FEMA from being swallowed up into some other part of the Department of Homeland Security? Not on my colleague's life.”