Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague Lou Barletta from Pennsylvania for introducing this commonsense piece of legislation.

As we see, this is another unintended consequence of ObamaCare. I have received a letter from one of my volunteer fire departments just a few months ago that talked about this bill, and it said that the provision that is hurting our firefighters could be devastating to fire departments. Many volunteer fire departments rely upon local donations and fundraisers to fund their basic operations. The addition of a requirement to provide health insurance would present a serious financial challenge to them. Some departments have taken steps to reduce staffing levels and shifts in order to fall under the 50 FTE and 30-hours-worked threshold, which reduces the fire department's baseline emergency response capabilities.

I would like to thank Staunton, Illinois' fire chief for the fire protection district in Staunton, Rick Haase, for sending me this letter, and I would urge my colleagues to support this piece of legislation.

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