Lincoln Bill a Boost for Arkansas's First Responders

Press Release

In response to concerns of first responders in Arkansas, U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) has introduced legislation to help local police, fire and ambulance services offset costs that are created when their employees are called up for service in the National Guard or Reserves.

"The men and women in our National Guard and Reserves stand ready to bravely serve this nation, and our country has increasingly looked to our volunteer reservists and guardsmen to help carry out our military needs," Lincoln said. "In light of this new reality, we must consider a whole host of conditions that arise when a volunteer is called up for military service and has to leave his or her civilian career behind. In particular, we must be prepared to handle the strain placed on police and fire departments as well as ambulance services whose National Guard employees have been deployed. We cannot allow a community's safety to suffer based on the absence of personnel who have volunteered to protect our nation."

Since the onset of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many communities have seen a number of their police, fire and EMS personnel sent overseas for military service as members of the National Guard or Reserves. Although these individuals forfeit their regular paychecks during their deployment and instead earn their salaries from the military, the costs of their replacements and the overtime pay to existing employees are often above and beyond the level of the deployed employee's salary. This has caused hardships for communities that are often left struggling to adequately protect their residents with police and emergency services, but that don't have the financial resources to do so.

Lincoln's legislation would create a grant program under the Department of Homeland Security, which would directly compensate state and local first responder agencies for any extraordinary financial burden that resulted from the deployment of one or more of their employees. Agencies would be eligible for reimbursement if they are able to demonstrate a five percent increase in expenses that are shown to be the direct result of the overseas deployment of an employee as a member of the National Guard or Reserves.

Eligible reimbursable expenses would include the salary of an individual hired to replace an employee; overtime expenses for an employee performing tasks that would have been performed by the deployed employee; and the cost of equipment, maintenance, or other activities a first responder agency was unable to acquire or perform because of the costs of replacing the employee.

"Employer Support is paramount to the future of the Guard," said Major General William D. Wofford, Adjutant General of the Arkansas National Guard. "During these tough economic times we must turn our attention to relieving the additional burden multiple deployments place on employers of the Guard and Reserves. This legislation, introduced by Sen. Lincoln, is a welcomed first step in that direction."

"We have had two of our firefighters deploy to the Persian Gulf with the National Guard over the last five years," said Hot Springs Fire Chief Ed Davis. "The costs associated with their military activation included increased overtime wages paid to current employees so that the vacant positions would be covered until we were able to hire replacements. We had additional overtime costs to contend with including costs associated with training new personnel, the purchase of protective equipment, uniforms, immunizations, and costs related to establishing a baseline medical condition for each new hire. All and all, it's been an expensive proposition."

Former Hot Springs Chief of Police Bobby Southard said he has had multiple officers deployed from his department. "The last officer that was deployed was a Sergeant and had a very technical position. He was not replaced during his deployment in part because I would not have felt good about promoting an employee to then demote the employee upon his return. This grant program would have been helpful in this case because it would have offset overtime expenses incurred."

Fort Smith Fire Chief Mike Richards has had employees deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Pacific theater and agreed that there are substantial costs to pay -- in terms of overtime -- while staff members are overseas.

"However, I sincerely support and appreciate the efforts of those troops who get deployed," Richards said.

"This Act will provide Fire Departments across this nation the necessary funding and staffing to continue protecting its citizens when one of their own has been deployed for active duty," said Lt. Harold Clark of the Pine Bluff Fire Department. "While this country's international interests are in many cases paramount to national security, the fire service is committed to the safety of its citizens each and every day."

"The impact of mobilization is often felt in small communities and rural areas around Arkansas that may have the majority of their police, fire and emergency service personnel also serving in reserve military units," said James Treece, a member of the National Guard Association from Beebe. "This creates a significant void in emergency response capability at the local level because those organizations do not have the resources to cover the costs of backfilling those positions. This legislation will help our local emergency response agencies fill that void keeping our communities more safe and secure."

"Fayetteville is blessed with wonderful city employees that do so much to make our community great," said Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan. "Some of our employees are also serving our nation in the military and I thank them and others for their service. Senator Lincoln's legislation also thanks them for their service by giving them peace of mind during deployment while it also assists the budgets and workload of local community projects."

"The Arkansas Ambulance Association offers its wholehearted support for the Strengthening Community Safety Act recently introduced," said Denise Carson, President of the Arkansas Ambulance Association. "In both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Arkansas EMS agencies have realized the significant costs associated with the activation and deployment of emergency and medical professionals. With the passage of this important legislation, EMS agencies will be able to minimize many of these unfunded costs, and can continue to provide high levels of care and response in their communities."

Ken Kelley, President and CEO of ProMed Ambulance, Inc., a leader in emergency and non-emergency medical transportation as well as emergency management services in Arkansas, also supports Senator Lincoln's legislation.

"ProMed Ambulance is a contracted, private provider of 9-1-1 and general ambulance transportation services for two counties in Arkansas. In 2005, we effectively lost 40 percent of our paramedic staffing from one operations base when two of our full time paramedics were deployed to Iraq," said Ken Kelley, ProMed President and CEO and the Secretary/Treasurer of the Arkansas Ambulance Association. "Our EMS agency suffered significant increases in payroll and payroll-related costs (particularly overtime wages), additional costs in hiring and training replacement personnel, and other mandated costs such as health screenings, personal protective equipment purchases, and certification related training."

"The ambulance industry is very pleased that Senator Lincoln and her colleagues have been able to craft this bill that will greatly assist us when some of our medics are called overseas," said Jamie Pafford-Gresham, President and CEO of Pafford EMS, which operates in Lee, Phillips, Mississippi and Hempstead counties. "We strongly support our men and women in uniform and this bill will help us to continue to hold their positions, while at the same time keeping our hometown communities safe and fully staffed."

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