Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, first, I wish to assure my colleagues that they don't have to be wearing a blue jacket to be supportive of this legislation, as the Senator from North Dakota, the Senator from Louisiana, and I happen to be wearing this afternoon.
Second, I thank my friend and colleague from Louisiana. What my friend from North Dakota said is exactly right. She has been the Paul Revere of this issue, running up and down the aisles of the Senate, if you will, letting people know--``flood insurance increases are coming; flood insurance increases are coming''--because she saw it in her home State. She has been a great leader, and I hope we will pass the measure she has helped so importantly to craft when it is offered a little later by my colleague from New Jersey.
I wish to say to her that she is exactly right about Sandy. We have families who were devastated by Sandy. They struggled to rebuild their homes. Then, all of a sudden, because of remapping and because of changes in the flood insurance law, they are hit with a flood insurance bill of $800, $900, $1,000. Let's make no mistake about it. These are not wealthy people. Lots of people in New York State who live along the water in Long Island and Queens and Brooklyn and Staten Island are working-class and middle-class people. Their homes are modest. Their jobs are modest. They can't afford $9,000 a year. For those who were told: Yours isn't going to rise, but when you sell your home it will, now they can't sell their homes.
There are some things that make the rest of the Nation scratch their heads in wonderment, saying: What the heck is going on in Washington, DC? There are too many things, and one of them is flood insurance. How can we demand that average, middle-class people pay up to, in some cases, $25,000 or $30,000 a year for a policy that is capped at $250,000? How can we have so many homeowners have to pay $5,000, $8,000, $10,000 when they can ill afford it? We cannot do that. That is why this legislation is so important. It is just wrong.
When we wrote the original Sandy bill, we put in an affordability provision, and there was supposed to be a study about how people could afford the insurance before any increases were put into effect. That did not happen.
I have to say, the people at FEMA are good people, but they do not understand affordability. They are not measuring affordability. They are not paying attention to affordability.
What is the job of Congress? One of our jobs--when an agency does not do what it is supposed to do--is for us to correct it and oversee it, and that is what has happened with FEMA and flood insurance.
So we call for a delay until an affordability study is done, until we can figure out a new way to avoid average folks, middle-class folks, from being forced to either not have flood insurance, abandon their homes, or not sell their homes when they desperately need to do so.
FEMA is saying: If we do not charge these people, the program will not be solvent. I will tell you something. If they continue to charge these rates, no one is going to buy flood insurance. People will drop out of the flood insurance program, and it will be even less solvent. So we have to come to a reasonable, thoughtful, and careful solution.
As the first two of us who have spoken have shown--and my colleagues from Louisiana, New Jersey, Florida, New Hampshire, who are all here to discuss this issue--this affects every part of the Nation. It does not just affect Florida, although they have hurricanes. It does not just affect Louisiana, although they have hurricanes and floods. It affects our great river basins--the Missouri and Mississippi River basins. It affects the west coast, where flash floods can be very, very dangerous. It affects any place that is near water, which is most of America.
We have so many issues. The maps that are drawn are way off base. I have areas in my State that are 5 miles from water and have never been flooded and are included in flood insurance. FEMA actually did not even measure the flood plains in Nassau County and imposed Suffolk County's flood plain. We had to force them to go back and start over.
There is so much wrong with the way the program is now existing that it must be put on hold so we can come up with something better than FEMA is doing.
So I hope my colleagues will support us. We have bipartisan support. The Senator from Georgia has been a great advocate. Others have been great advocates on the other side of the aisle. If you say to yourself: I am going to object because this is not affecting my State, believe me, it will. As FEMA draws maps in State after State across the country, the very same thing that is now afflicting North Dakota, Louisiana, New York, Florida, and New Jersey will afflict your State. You will be coming back to us 2 years from now saying: Hey, let's move that legislation.
Let's avoid that problem. Let's do what we have to do. Put this on hold, go back to the drawing board, and create a FEMA program that both works and is affordable. I believe we can, if this Senate and this House will give us the chance.
I yield the floor.
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise to speak about a particular incident that occurred in Webster, NY, a beautiful town near the City of Rochester.
On Christmas Eve, 2012, nearly 1 year ago today, the 125-member West Webster Volunteer Firemen's Association--a volunteer fire department east of Rochester, NY--faced an unimaginable tragedy when four of their brave members were wounded, two fatally, when they responded to a fire but instead faced an ambush of unspeakable proportions.
While many families across our Nation were waking up last Christmas Eve morning to finish preparing Christmas dinner, shopping, wrapping presents, picking up the family from the airport, four Webster families were instead confronting a heart-wrenching tragedy.
The call of a house on fire came into the West Webster Fire Department at 5:30 a.m. on December 24, and although it was a cold snowy morning, still dark before the Sun rose, everyday heroes from the West Webster Fire Department courageously did what they volunteered to do on behalf of their neighbors and on behalf of their hometowns. They, similar to millions of brave volunteer firefighters throughout our country and throughout its history, left their homes and their families in safety to put out a fire that always creates danger.
This routine call turned into a tragedy which shocked the community, people throughout the country, and even people throughout the world.
Firefighter Joseph Hofstetter, a 14-year volunteer for West Webster Fire Department, arrived first on the scene. Firefighter Theodore Scardino arrived soon after with LT Mike Chiapperini in a pumper truck, followed by 19-year-old firefighter Tomasz Kaczowka driving the department's SUV.
What they did not know was that the fire was intentionally set by the home's owner in order to lure these innocent firefighters into a senseless sniper ambush. The sniper was hiding behind a berm amid the chaos of the fire and began shooting at the responding firefighters.
The firefighters were confused at first to hear popping sounds and thought it might be from the fire but LT Mike Chiapperini, who was also a Webster police officer, knew better and shouted to his fellow volunteers to take cover, but unfortunately it was too late.
Firefighter Hofstetter was shot in the pelvis while trying to alert dispatchers on the radio to the situation.
Ted Scardino was shot in the shoulder, and 5 minutes later he was shot again in the leg. The 16-year volunteer lay there while bleeding for over an hour, enduring the December cold while sustaining second-degree burns on his head as the fire now spread to consume six other neighboring homes.
Lieutenant Chiapperini and Firefighter Kaczowka both died in the ambush.
As news of this horrific, senseless Christmas Eve tragedy spread, well-meaning people from across the Rochester and Finger Lakes area, across New York State, across the Nation and the world reached out to the West Webster Volunteer Firemen's Association to offer support and prayers.
Thousands of incredibly generous people flooded the department with countless financial contributions to support the volunteer department, to support the four firefighters--and in the case of Lieutenant Chiapperini and Firefighter Kaczowka, to support the families they had left behind.
Not realizing that collecting and distributing the funds to the families would jeopardize the association's tax-exempt status with the IRS, the association accepted donations from generous people all around the Nation wanting to help the four families who suffered the most on that day.
They collected these donations for the victims, for their families, and they want to give these donations to the victims and their families. It defies reason that they would be unable to do so now because of a technicality in the Tax Code.
Just as we did after 9/11, and again after a similar fire department tragedy in California in 2006, it is our obligation to make sure the West Webster Volunteer Firemen's Association can now disburse to these families the contributions that their neighbors and unknown, countless, generous others wanted them to have.
As it is, the disbursement of these funds has been delayed for months and now almost 1 year. That is why I am asking the Senate to proceed with consideration of the Fallen Firefighters Assistance Tax Clarification Act.
This proposal merely clarifies--as we did after 9/11 and again after the California tragedy in 2006--that the West Webster Volunteer Fire Department will not lose its status as a nonprofit association by distributing the donations to these firefighters and their families.
As we again enter the Christmas season and approach the 1-year anniversary of this tragedy, now is the time to make this right.
We need to do it on behalf of the families of the fallen and the injured. The family of 43-year-old LT Mike Chiapperini includes his wife Kim, his 19-year-old son Nick, and his daughters, 4-year-old Kacie and 3-year-old Kylie.
Known to many as Chip, Lieutenant Chiapperini was a West Webster Fire Department volunteer firefighter for 25 years. He was past chief of the West Webster Fire Department and adviser for its Fire Explorer Post. He also served with distinction for 19 years as a police officer with the Webster Police Department and rose through the ranks as a dispatcher, police officer, investigator, sergeant, and lieutenant. In short, he committed his entire life to public service for the town of Webster.
Likewise, 19-year-old firefighter Tomasz Kaczowka left behind his parents Janina and Marian Kaczowka, along with his older twin brothers and a large extended family. Firefighter Kaczowka was selflessly devoted to his family and his community. In fact, he was not even supposed to be on duty that Christmas Eve but elected to make the shift so that older department members could be home with their families that day.
The surviving firefighters, Ted Scardino and Joseph Hofstetter, have had to endure long rehabilitations for their injuries and their families have had to deal with life's ordinary challenges and day-to-day expenses as Ted and Joseph recover and move forward with their lives.
The fact is, ordinary Americans, moved by the heroic sacrifice of these volunteer firefighters, have offered their generous support. They have intended their contributions to help these families in the wake of the tragedy and in recognition of the service of these brave firefighters.
These were volunteer firefighters--volunteers. I know many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are well acquainted with the volunteer fire service. Many may even have a membership in a volunteer fire company themselves.
You all know men and women just like the members of West Webster. They are the epitome of the American spirit.
The French observer de Tocqueville was taken by that spirit when he visited America and the Rochester area in 1831 and thought voluntarism was one of the things that set America apart from the rest of the world. That was true then. It is still true today.
These heroes do not ask for anything. They just want to protect their neighbors and their community. It is just plain wrong that they would lose their not-for-profit status simply for being a passthrough to convey donations to these families after an unspeakable tragedy.
In that same spirit, I had hoped to request unanimous consent this evening to move forward with the consideration of this legislation. Who could object? Who could object? However, I understand that some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle object to me making the request at this time. Therefore, I will withhold that request this evening and sincerely hope my colleagues will think about this overnight and allow us to proceed with consideration tomorrow. It is, indeed, the right thing to do.
I yield the floor.
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