Newsroom 2005

August 14, 2005

Subject: NVFC Action Alert: With Members of Congress Back Home,Opportunity Perfect for Action

With Members of Congress Back Home, Opportunity Perfect for Action

NVFC Urges Fire Service to Contact their Representatives and Senators

With Members of Congress back in their districts for the August congressional recess, there is an excellent opportunity for members of the fire service contact your Members of Congress and/or attend town meetings. The NVFC also urges you to consider using the congressional recess to invite your Members of Congress (and/or their staff) to your fire department. To look up contact information for your Representatives and Senators, go to www.congress.org.

The following is list of proposed federal legislation you can discuss when making these contacts. For more information on the legislation that the NVFC is tracking, go to: http://www.nvfc.org/leg/legislation.html.

FY 2006 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill

Having been passed by both houses of Congress, the FY 2006 Homeland Security Appropriations bill will be considered by a joint House-Senate Conference Committee after the August recess. The House-passed version of the bill provided $575 million for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant program, while the Senate version only provided $550 million for the program. Both figure represent drastic cuts to this crucial program.

In addition, final funding for Citizen Corps, another NVFC priority, will be on the table for negotiations. While the House funded the program at $40 million, the Senate provided only $25 million. Both figures are below the President’s $50 million request which will help promote citizen emergency preparedness and support programs such as Fire Corps, which promotes the use of citizen volunteers to enhance the capacity of fire and rescue departments by performing non-operational functions.

Also, the SAFER program, a new DHS program which provides grants to hire firefighters and recruit and retain volunteers, received $115 million as part of the Senate version and $75 million in the House-passed version.

The NVFC is asking members of the fire service to ask their Representatives and Senators to support the higher figures for FIRE grants ($575 million), Citizen Corps ($40 million) and SAFER ($115 million).

Finally, the fire service is hoping to retain language passed in the Senate version which created a $52.6 million line-item in the appropriations bill to directly fund the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA). Currently, USFA is funded through a larger account within FEMA, exclusively at the DHS’s discretion. The NVFC and the rest of the fire service organizations believe direct funding of USFA recognizes the importance of the agency in training, data and other support capacities it provides to the fire service and the citizens they protect.

Additional Radio Spectrum for First Responders (S. 1268/ H.R. 1646)

The NVFC strongly supports the passage of legislation that sets a hard date for parts of the 700 MHz band to be cleared for use by first responders. Any measures intended to address the impact of that move on consumers must fall within the parameters of the hard date for the legislation to be effective.

On June 15, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) introduced the Save Lives Act (S. 1268), which sets a date of January 1, 2009 for the frequency turnover regardless of DTV saturation. In addition, it provides for increased consumer education on the change and takes other steps to ensure the TV broadcasters will retain their audience. The broadcasters have agreed on several occasions to surrender the analog spectrum, but now is the time to set a clear timeframe and take the necessary measures to bring that about.

On the House side, the Homeland Emergency Response Operations (HERO) Act (H.R 1646) was introduced in April by Representatives Jane Harman (D-CA) and Curt Weldon (R-PA), which sets an earlier deadline for transition, January 1, 2007.

Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act (S. 512/ H.R. 1131)

This legislation would provide tax incentives for the voluntary installation and retrofitting of buildings with automated sprinklers by reducing the tax depreciation schedule on nonresidential real property form 39 years to only 5. Beside the countless lives and billions of dollars in property damage this bill could save, additional benefits include increased loan activity, lower local fire department costs, reduced insurance claims and premium costs, increased retrofitting and installation jobs, and the generation of payroll tax revenue.

Good Samaritan Volunteer Firefighter Assistance Act (H.R. 1088/S. 766)

This legislation would limit the liability of companies and fire departments who donate surplus equipment to volunteer fire departments. Every year quality fire equipment, with an estimated worth in the millions of dollars, is destroyed or discarded by industry and larger fire departments instead of being donated to small fire departments in order to avoid civil liability lawsuits. The fear of litigation has forced heavy industry and wealthier fire departments to waste surplus equipment, which in many cases has years of potential use remaining.

This legislation is modeled after legislation that has passed in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, New York, South Carolina and Texas. The legislation was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last year, but the Congress adjourned before the bill could move through the Senate.

Volunteer Responder Incentive Protection Act of 2005 (H.R. 1405)

This legislation would prevent the Internal Revenue Service from taxing the nominal compensation awarded to local volunteer firefighters and emergency medical responders for service to their communities. It would amend the tax code to exclude from income and employment taxes and wage withholding property tax rebates and other benefits provided to volunteer responders. Similar legislation will be introduced in the Senate after recess by Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Gordon Smith (R-OR).

Supporting Emergency Responders Volunteer Efforts (SERVE) Act (H.R. 934/S. 625)

This legislation would provide a $1,000 annual tax credit for active members of volunteer fire and EMS organizations. This could serve as an important recruitment and retention tool for local volunteer fire departments who are struggling to meet increased the demands placed on them. With the ranks of the volunteer fire service decreasing over 10% in the last 20 years, the Federal government should provide a small incentive to these brave men and women who risk their life for little or no compensation to help reverse this trend. In fact, the cost of this tax incentive to the Federal government would be quite small compared to the estimated $37.2 billion annual cost savings provided by the volunteer emergency services.