Legislative Conference Attendees Make Great Strides in Congress

IAFF members from Anchorage, AK Local 1264 and Fairbanks, AK Local 1324 met with Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) during the IAFF 2007 Alfred K. Whitehead Legislative Conference.

March 19, 2007 – Members of Congress have responded overwhelmingly to the more than 900 IAFF members who stormed Capitol Hill March 13 as part of the 2007 Alfred K. Whitehead Legislative Conference. Dozens of members of Congress have signed on to support IAFF legislative priorities over the past week.

“The immediate positive response we have received to our lobbying efforts is a testament to the respect and influence that the IAFF and its members hold in the halls of Congress,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. “The 110th Congress presents our union with a tremendous opportunity to lobby for passage of legislation on a number of key issues. The continued hard work of attendees once they return home from Washington is vital to our success.”

IAFF legislative priorities include the passage of a national collective bargaining bill for public safety officers, full funding for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Act, increasing access to affordable health insurance for early retirees, enacting federal fire fighter presumptive disability benefits and preventing tax increases on middle income workers.

In the week since the 2007 Legislative Conference, dozens of members of Congress have co-sponsored H.R. 980, the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, and H.R. 1142, the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act. Additionally, more than 100 representatives wrote to the House Appropriations Committee urging the Committee to increase funding for the SAFER grant program.

See if your senators and representatives have signed on to support priority legislation by visiting the IAFF Governmental and Political Affairs web site at www.iaff.org/politics/us/content/issues.htm.