Bill Pascrell: “Good luck to you, Martin, and thank you for your service and the great job you have done for America. Both sides working…”

“Good luck to you, Martin, and thank you for your service and the great job you have done for America. Both sides working together on this legislation speaks for itself. The conference report I support. There is real good in this legislation. As the author of the FIRE Act, I am glad to see that the Congress has restored the President's draconian cuts to this successful program. $662 million for FIRE grants, including $115 million for the SAFER Act will allow us to continue to provide for the critical equipment and staffing needs of fire departments nationwide. I am also heartened by the fact that we kept FEMA in Homeland Security. I think that is very, very important, rather than make it a separate organization. Combining many of the Department's preparedness functions with FEMA and keeping it in DHS is wise and, I think, sound policy. But there is some missed opportunities here. I cannot let this go by without projecting this and asking everyone in this room to think about it. We have done everything to try to put before the American people and the Congress the necessity for interoperability dollars. We had it in the budget, we came to agreement on both sides, but it is not there anymore. We said that this was the most difficult task facing our police and our fire, yet we take $3.1 billion out in dedicated interoperability funding. We have had hearings on this in Washington State and hearings in New Jersey, and this is not the way to treat our law enforcement.”