Remarks (as Prepared): Congressional Fire Services Institute Dinner

REMARKS [AS PREPARED]: CONGRESSIONAL FIRE SERVICES INSTITUTE DINNER

Good evening. Let me begin by thanking CFSI for putting this wonderful event together and for inviting me to join you this year. I'd also like to thank the International Association of Fire Chiefs, International Association of Fire Fighters, National Volunteer Fire Council, and all of the other organizations represented here today for their support in passing important legislation through Congress.

I understand it, there are 2000 of you here for the dinner tonight, and most of you have spent some time up on Capitol Hill to spread the word regarding key issues, such as FIRE Act and SAFER Act funding and the legislation to help protect volunteers' jobs when they are asked to assist FEMA in disasters declared by the President.

You are all doing the right thing by taking time to tell Congress what must be done, and my message to you tonight is that you are making a big, big difference through your efforts. How big of a difference? Well, I'll start with over $3.1 billion dollars worth of difference. That's the total amount of funding we've secured for FIRE grants since the program was enacted in 2000. Many of you have direct experience with the FIRE Act program, either by applying for, or hopefully in most cases, receiving a grant.

Unfortunately, we are now in a fiscal environment that is forcing very difficult budget decisions that threaten funding levels for FIRE grants. I am working with Senator Dodd and others hard to restore FIRE Act funding, through budget amendments and other means, but I need your help to win this battle.

FIRE Grant Success Stories

I'd like to challenge all of you this evening to step up, as you have so many times in the past, and go beyond demonstrating the need for additional dollars, and add to that "need" message a clear picture of just how successful this program has been the past five years. In short, we need to know about your FIRE grant success stories.

What do these success stories sound like? A true success story links a FIRE grant to a very specific instance where the funds provided by that grant helped save a particular person's life or allowed you to respond more effectively to a particular emergency.

A success story might sound like this: The Bazetta Fire Department in Cortland, Ohio, received a FIRE grant in 2003 for safety equipment, including cardiac monitors and a defibrillator (AED). Just last year, Bazetta's fire-based EMS unit was able to use the AED unit purchased with FIRE Act funds to revive a resident in Cortland, likely saving this person's life. This Ohioan would not be alive today without the advances made possible by the FIRE grant program.

There must be thousands of similar stories just waiting to be told. We can no longer keep this program adequately funded based only on need. We must now go beyond need to prove that when we spend a taxpayer dollar on FIRE grants, that dollar goes farther toward saving lives and preventing injuries or property damage than it would under any other program.

Campus Fire Safety

As we push ahead on the FIRE Act, we must also tend to new challenges. One of biggest issues I'm working to address right now is campus fire safety. Last year, three students died in a tragic off-campus housing fire at Miami University in Ohio. Similar incidents have occurred across America, claiming 86 lives since 2000.

A significant number of the deaths we've seen in campus housing fires could have been prevented by better code enforcement, greater fire safety education and awareness among students, or more widespread implementation of technologies, such as fire suppression sprinklers. Protecting the countless students in the U.S. facing similar risks every year is an enormous challenge, shared at the local, state, and federal level. This challenge also extends to parents, students, college officials, housing owners, and certainly those of you here this evening.

I want to encourage fire departments throughout the United States to take a greater role in fire safety in student housing and to try to identify innovative means to tackle this problem. I am working with the Center for Campus Fire Safety, USFA, and Senators Santorum, Biden, and Lautenberg on legislation that will help advance this cause by creating tax incentives for installation of sprinkler systems and raising awareness through right-to-know laws.

For those of you whose departments or organizations are near a college or university, I implore you to join this effort. Find time to connect with officials from the college or university to identify ways you can address campus fire safety locally. Set up a fire demonstration on campus, or offer to do voluntary code compliance walk-throughs in off campus student neighborhoods. Do whatever you can to make a difference in this area, and be sure to let those of us in Congress know how we can do so, as well.

Thank you.

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