IAFF Legislative Achievements Mark Session’s End
Boost for SAFER Funding Included in Year-End Mad Dash

October 6, 2008 – The final days of any two-year congressional session are always chaotic, but the need to rescue of the nation’s financial markets and the hotly contested November elections combined to make the conclusion of the 110th Congress particularly challenging.

Despite the long odds, the IAFF achieved a number of significant victories in the closing days of the session, including increasing funding for SAFER and FIRE Act grants, promoting adoption of fire fighter health and safety standards, securing disaster assistance funds to help communities recover from Hurricane Ike, and protecting threatened federal fire fighter jobs. Congress also successfully passed a short-term patch to protect fire fighters from the alternative minimum tax (AMT).

"By passing these important initiatives, this Congress once again demonstrated its commitment to the IAFF and its members,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. “The IAFF has worked with its friends in the 110th Congress to enact crucial fire fighter legislation, starting with H.R. 1 in its first week. These final achievements place on emphatic explanation point on a very successful session.”

Increasing Funding for SAFER and FIRE Act Grants

Chief among the IAFF’s achievements was the successful passage of the 2009 Homeland Security Appropriations bill, which includes increased funding for SAFER and FIRE Act grants. H.R. 2638 provides $210 million for SAFER – a $20 million increase over last year – and $565 million for the FIRE Act – a $5 million increase. H.R. 2638 also includes funding for the Department of Defense, military construction and disaster relief, as well as stop-gap funding to keep the federal government running through March 2009.

Until recently, it seemed unlikely that Congress would pass a Homeland Security appropriation bill this year at all. Funding for almost all federal agencies was wrapped into a giant “continuing resolution,” which flat funds programs at least until March 2009. However, at the last minute, Congress enacted spending bills for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, enabling these programs to continue to grow while the rest of the federal government remained frozen. By working with its friends in Congress – notably David Price (D-NC) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the IAFF was able to secure funding for its most crucial programs.

Health and Safety Standards

Congress also passed legislation reauthorizing the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), which includes language designed to better protect fire fighter health and safety. The bill (S.2606) directs the USFA administrator to seek ways to promote compliance with national consensus standards that protect fire fighter health and safety.

The USFA Reauthorization bill also expands fire service training opportunities for larger urban fire departments, promotes fire service-based EMS and improves the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS).

Securing Disaster Assistance Funding

The spending bill that funded the Department of Homeland Security also included emergency funding in response to recent disasters facing the nation, including Hurricane Ike and the California wildfires. Thousands of IAFF members deployed to fight the California fires at their peak, and the bill provides $910 millionfor wildland fire fighting activities to cover costs associated with fire suppression and to implement fire prevention efforts to mitigate future disasters.

The bill also provides vital assistance to the Gulf Coast communities devastated by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav. Scores of IAFF members in Texas and Louisiana worked to protect their neighbors while their own homes and communities bore the brunt of the storms. H.R. 2638 includes $6.5 billion through the Community Development Block grant program to repair and rebuild infrastructure, including fire stations, damaged by the storms.

Protecting Fire Fighters from the Alternative Minimum Tax

The economic rescue plan (H.R. 1424) adopted by Congress includes a one-year fix to prevent the alternative minimum tax (AMT) from hitting an estimated 24 million taxpayers. Congress created the AMT in the 1960s to make certain that wealthier individuals who escaped paying taxes with deductions and tax shelters paid at least their fair share of taxes. Unfortunately, over time the AMT evolved into a tax on the very people it was intended to protect. As middle-income taxpayers, fire fighters exemplify the demographic vulnerable to paying the AMT, and cannot afford to pay its average tax increase of $2,000. Although the bill only provides a temporary solution to the AMT problem, the fix adequately protects millions of taxpayers from paying an unintended and unjust tax increase next year.

Protecting Federal Fire Fighter Jobs

The IAFF also prevailed in protecting Department of Defense (DoD) fire fighter jobs – convincing Congress to officially reject the administration’s proposal to contract out wildland fire fighting functions and securing language in the annual defense policy bill (S. 3001) requiring the Air Force to report back on the impact of a plan to cut hundreds of fire fighter positions at bases nationwide.

By rejecting the administration’s plan to contract out wildland fire fighters, Congress expressed its full support for the mission of DoD fire fighters and the effective coordination of federal, state and local fire protection assets. The report must evaluate the plan’s impact on fire fighting safety, base and local response capabilities, base fire department certifications, and may even include a plan to restore the jobs.

S. 3001 also includes authority to transfer three surplus C-12 aircraft to the California Department of Forestry and establishes a requirement for DoD to study how to most efficiently use its Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System in a federal response to wildfires.

Legislation providing increased funding for SAFER and FIRE Act grants, as well as funding for disaster assistance, was signed into law on September 30, 2008. H.R. 1424 was signed into law on October 3, 2008, while S. 3001 and S.2606 are expected to be signed into law in the near future.