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Letter to John Carter, Chairman, and David Price, Ranking Member, of the House Appropriations Committee - Increase Funding for Fire and Emergency Response Teams

Letter

By: Sanford Bishop, Jr., Katherine Clark, Jim Costa, Steven Horsford, John Conyers, Jr., Elijah Cummings, Steny Hoyer, Pete Gallego, Yvette Clarke, Joaquin Castro, Raul Grijalva, Keith Ellison, Lloyd Doggett II, Julia Brownley, Cheri Bustos, Joyce Beatty, Michael Grimm, Bill Enyart, Eliot Engel, Lois Capps, Al Green, Donna Edwards, Peter DeFazio, Chaka Fattah, Sr., Joe Courtney, Elizabeth Esty, Brian Higgins, Mike Fitzpatrick, Colleen Hanabusa, Spencer Bachus, Rosa DeLauro, Dina Titus, Rick Larsen, Chellie Pingree, Louise Slaughter, Jim McDermott, Tim Murphy, Mike Rogers, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Jerry Nadler, Jackie Speier, Ron Kind, Allyson Schwartz, Pete King, Joe Kennedy III, Raul Ruiz, Eleanor Norton, Stephen Lynch, Doris Matsui, Don Payne, Jr., Sandy Levin, Eric Swalwell, Frank LoBiondo, Bob Brady, Lois Frankel, Karen Bass, Ron Barber, Joe Garcia, Alcee Hastings, Sr., Suzanne Bonamici, Diana DeGette, Matt Cartwright, Ami Bera, Chris Collins, Sheila Jackson Lee, Tony Cárdenas, Donna Christensen, Susan Davis, Bill Johnson, John Carney, Jr., Paul Gosar, Joe Crowley, Steve Israel, Bill Foster, Dave Reichert, Annie Kuster, Jan Schakowsky, Carolyn McCarthy, Gloria Negrete McLeod, Jerry McNerney, Carolyn Maloney, Juan Vargas, Tim Walz, Ann Kirkpatrick, Bill Pascrell, Jr., Dan Maffei, GT Thompson, Jr., Bill Keating, Collin Peterson, Chris Van Hollen, Jr., Jim Langevin, Chris Smith, Dave Loebsack, Leonard Lance, Peter Welch, John Yarmuth, Gerry Connolly, Janice Hahn, Chris Gibson, Steve Cohen, Mike Capuano, Corrine Brown, Alan Grayson, Bruce Braley, Howard Coble, Marcia Fudge, Jared Huffman, Joe Heck, Jr., Jim Himes, Paul Cook, André Carson, Emanuel Cleaver II, Richard Hudson, Jr., Lou Barletta, Richard Hanna, Xavier Becerra, Susan Brooks, Mark Takano, Nick Rahall II, Filemon Vela, Jr., Michelle Lujan Grisham, Ed Perlmutter, Marc Veasey, Pat Meehan, Frederica Wilson, Mark Pocan, Jim Renacci, Kilili Sablan, David McKinley, Derek Kilmer, Albio Sires, Dutch Ruppersberger, Sean Maloney, Brad Schneider, Linda Sánchez, Frank Pallone, Jr., Barbara Lee, Donald Young, Grace Meng, Danny Davis, Rubén Hinojosa, Sr., G. K. Butterfield, Jr., Gene Green, John Delaney, David Cicilline, Tulsi Gabbard, Earl Blumenauer, Jim Gerlach, Rob Bishop, Suzan DelBene, Hakeem Jeffries, John Tierney, Jim McGovern, Carol Shea-Porter, Jon Runyan, Mike Michaud, Loretta Sanchez, Charlie Rangel, Ben Luján, Jr., Austin Scott, Kurt Schrader, Jared Polis, John Sarbanes, Alan Lowenthal, Kyrsten Sinema, John Lewis, Niki Tsongas, Bennie Thompson, Gwen Moore, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Paul Tonko, Gary Peters, Dan Lipinski
Date: April 1, 2014
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: National Security Infrastructure

Dear Chairman Carter and Ranking Member Price:

As you begin work on the Fiscal Year 2015 Homeland Security Appropriations bill, we strongly urge you to provide at least $340 million for the Assistance to Firefighters (FIRE) Grant Program and $340 million for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant Program. This total represents the overall amount included for firefighter grants in the Fiscal Year 2014 omnibus spending bill.

The SAFER program provides much-needed funding for career and volunteer fire departments across America to hire new firefighters and recruit and retain volunteer firefighters. This program is critical to the thousands of fire stations across the country that are currently operating short of staff. When adequately funded, SAFER will bring our nation's fire departments to staffing levels that will improve the safety of our firefighters, and the communities they serve, as they respond to the scene of a fire, auto accident, or other natural or manmade disasters. Two-thirds of all career and volunteer fire departments in our nation, located in both large cities and small towns, do not have sufficient personnel to adequately protect the public.

Under the SAFER program, fire departments throughout the country are able to apply for federal grants to hire and pay new firefighters. In addition, grants have been awarded to state and local organizations to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters. As you know, the SAFER program complements the very successful Assistance to Firefighters Grant program, through which the federal government provides funds for training and equipment to fire departments throughout the country. Ensuring that career and volunteer departments have adequate numbers of firefighters will allow departments to fully utilize the training and equipment funds provided through the FIRE Grant program. We urge you to fund this vital program at $340 million in FY2015.

Through the committee's past efforts, we clearly demonstrated Congress' strong bipartisan support for the FIRE Grant program, as well as its understanding of the contributions this program has made to our firefighters and the communities they serve. This program has positively impacted public safety by providing more than $6.6 billion since 2001 for infrared cameras, personal protective gear, hazmat detection devices, improved breathing apparatuses, and interoperable communications systems. This is the basic equipment our fire departments need to effectively respond to all hazards. However, the more than $3 billion in applications submitted on average annually demonstrate that there is much work to be done before all of our communities are served by first responders who are equipped and trained as well as possible.

We ask far too many of our firefighters to risk their lives in our defense every day, too often with insufficient staffing, inadequate training and obsolete equipment, and we have an obligation to provide them the necessary resources to perform their jobs as safely and effectively as possible. We urge you to help Congress meet that obligation by funding the Assistance to Firefighters (FIRE) Grant Program and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Program at $340 million each in the FY2015 Homeland Security Appropriations bill.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.


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