Bill Pascrell: “Mr. Chairman, nearly 2 years ago I proudly introduced H.R. 4229, the 21st Century Fire and Public Safety Act. It was a…”

“Mr. Chairman, nearly 2 years ago I proudly introduced H.R. 4229, the 21st Century Fire and Public Safety Act. It was a bill to provide competitive grants directly to over 32,000 paid, part-time, part-paid volunteer fire departments across America. The money could be used for personnel, equipment, vehicles, training, health and safety initiatives, and prevention programs. At that time, I stated that our fire fighters were the forgotten part of our public safety equation. I said that the Congress should make a commitment to those who make a commitment to us every day. I put a large authorization on this bill because I wanted to send the message that we were serious. There was a legitimate and overwhelming need. We needed to show that it was no longer acceptable to pay lip service to the fire fighters in our districts on the weekends, and not put our money where our mouth is during the week. Mr. Chairman, I proudly reintroduced this legislation in the 106th Congress, the fire bill. We are today a far cry from that day in July of 1998 when only three of us put our name on the bill. Today, there are over 206 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, over 20 sponsors in the Senate. The administration has announced their full support of this measure and will work to see it passed. We are making progress and this is part of a process and a procedure to get us to our final goal.”