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Floor Speech

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Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I come to the floor today seeking unanimous consent of my legislation to reauthorize the Firefighter Cancer Registry, a law that was passed unanimously by Congress and signed into law in 2018.

The Firefighter Cancer Registry improves our Nation's ability to conduct research and gather data on the cancer risks that are associated with firefighting, and in doing so, we learn how to mitigate those risks. It is a vital program, one that furthers our understanding of how to protect the brave first responders who run toward danger when everyone else is running away from it.

Yet, on October 1 of last year, the program expired. That should have never happened. In July, this Chamber passed this very legislation as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, but, unfortunately, it was stripped out of the House version.

My bipartisan, commonsense legislation would reauthorize the program for an additional 5 years while bringing it in line with the current appropriation level. And since this body has already once approved reauthorizing it at this funding level, a unanimous consent vote should be a simple task that we can all agree upon.

In the House, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has already marked up language identical to this bill, including the specific $5.5 million figure which, I should add, is in line with the program's current appropriation. Further, the $5.5 million appropriation was the product of a negotiation between the firefighter organizations, including the International Association of Fire Fighters, the CDC, and the House committee members. Although the CDC actually wanted the program funded at a higher level of $7.5 million, there was an agreement on that $5.5 million, which is the present authorization.

Supported by Senators Murkowski, Brown, Klobuchar, Fischer, Rubio, Tester, and Blumenthal, this legislation would benefit both career firefighters as well as volunteers such as my constituent Edward Diaz. Mr. Diaz is the son of Eduardo Diaz, a North Bergen firefighter who, tragically, passed away in 2017 from pancreatic cancer.

Today, Edward carries on his family's legacy as a volunteer firefighter in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. I submit to my colleagues the Diaz family, along with their fellow brothers and sisters in the profession, are the reason we should support this bill today. Firefighters put their lives and well-being on the line every single day to keep our loved ones and our communities safe, and it is time we care for them and make their health a priority. Firefighting is more than a job. It is a calling. I believe we should honor that calling by reauthorizing the Firefighter Cancer Registry.

I don't think we need to wait for a firefighter to die to honor them. We can honor them by ultimately passing this legislation so we can continue to mitigate the risk firefighters face by cancer substances that ultimately can take their life.

2119; that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I appreciate that Senator Cotton is supportive. But let me just say, I wish Senator Paul and Senator Lee were here to have firefighters across this Nation understand why something that is bipartisan--something that passed the Senate through the NDAA, something that is presently exactly being mirrored by Republicans in the House of Representatives--cannot ultimately pass this Chamber.

I guess it is ``bah humbug'' to firefighters this season. But we won't stop until we get it passed.

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