Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BARLETTA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 33, the
Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act.

This is a good, truly bipartisan bill that protects our first
responders, our volunteer firefighters, and emergency services
personnel. It protects them by ensuring that they are not considered
employees under the employer mandate provision of ObamaCare.

If they were, some fire companies would be forced to pay for the
volunteers' health insurance or pay a fine, driving many fire
departments out of business. As a former mayor, I know how important
volunteer fire companies are to the health and safety of a community.
Simply put, this is a public safety issue.

I first learned about this issue from a volunteer firefighter, Bob
Timko, back home, and I began a crusade to clear this up for volunteer
firefighters and localities and the residents of Pennsylvania and every
other State.

As you know, the employer mandate of ObamaCare kicks in for employers
with 50 or more employees. Now, some fire companies may hear about this
and immediately think, ``Well, we only have 25 volunteers, so we are
safe. We don't have 50.''

That may not necessarily be the case. Some fire companies are
considered part of their local government. If you take the number of
firefighters, paid and unpaid, and add them to the number of other
public employees, such as highway workers, police, code enforcement
officers, health officers, and clerical workers, you can easily reach
50, even in a small town.

This would be a very big deal in my home State of Pennsylvania, where
97 percent of our fire companies are either completely or mostly
volunteers. Nationally, almost 92 percent of fire companies use at
least some volunteers, and over 86 percent depend on all or mostly
volunteers.

Those numbers come from the 2012 National Fire Department Census
conducted by the United States Fire Administration. If your district is
like mine, then volunteer firefighters are ingrained in your community.
We won an initial battle on this issue. After I raised it with the
IRS and brought pressure to bear through this legislation, they finally
relented and changed their rules regarding the Federal tax status of
volunteer firefighters.

However, this is too important of a public safety issue to be left to
the changing positions of unelected Federal bureaucrats at the IRS.
Their arbitrary regulatory guidance could easily be changed back.
Our people back home deserve better. We owe our emergency service
volunteers, who risk their lives every day, rock-solid certainty. This
legislation says, once and for all, that volunteer firefighters are
just that--volunteers--and should not be subjected to the employer
mandate. It takes away the power of the IRS to change the rules.
I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their
continued support. Last year, this bill passed the Ways and Means
Committee by a strong bipartisan vote of 37-0, and it passed the House
by a very rare unanimous vote of 410-0. Not one single Member,
Republican or Democrat, opposed it.

I want to thank Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader McCarthy, Majority
Whip Scalise, the Ways and Means Committee, and their staffs. We all
recognize that my bill is a simple, bipartisan solution to an
unforeseen consequence of the President's health care law.

This bill has the strong support of the National Volunteer Fire
Council, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and the
Congressional Fire Services Institute. I want to thank my partners, as
well as the men and women they represent, for their help.

To be clear, forcing volunteer fire companies to comply with
ObamaCare will not extend health insurance to the uninsured; rather, it
will close firehouses, placing people at risk.

I strongly urge the passage of this bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BARLETTA. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleagues on
both sides. There are very few times when you have a vote here that is
unanimous, and it is for a simple reason. It is that everyone here
understands and appreciates what these men and women in our communities are willing to do to make the community safe.

You know, as a mayor, I have come to appreciate the volunteer
firefighters more than I could ever imagine. Many times, I have watched
them stand out in the middle of a road with a boot, trying to raise
money so that they could buy gear or equipment or get more training.
The volunteers ask very little of their community compared to what they
are willing to give, and that is the ultimate sacrifice. They are
willing to give their lives for people that they don't even know. They
are willing to walk into a burning fire.

I can remember one night, our local fire department in Hazleton,
Pennsylvania, they ran in, and they came out with a little baby whose
life they saved. And I also remember a day when they couldn't save a
life and how it affected every one of those men and women as if it were
their own child. They have a lot to worry about, and what they
shouldn't worry about is where they are going to get money to provide
health insurance or pay a fine. I am sure this was an unintended
consequence, and we here recognize that.

So again, I want to thank the chairman and my colleagues for standing
with me and saluting the real American heroes, the men and women who
volunteer to save us, our first responders.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source