You are cordially
Invited to Join
JACK WILSON
Candidate for
State Senate
Second Essex & Middlesex District
Thursday, July 22nd
5:30 P.M. to 7:30 P.M.
Salvatore’s Restaurant
354 Merrimack St
Lawrence, MA 01843
Suggested Donation Levels:
$50 ●$125 ●$250 ●$500
Checks made payable to the
Committee to Elect
John J. Wilson Jr.
Online donations welcome at
jackwilsonforsenate.com
For more information
or to RSVP please call
(978) 475-6469
or email
jack@jackwilsonforsenate. com
|
|
What Does Health Care Reform Mean for Fire Fighters?
|
A Message from Harold Schaitberger, IAFF General President
These are truly challenging economic times. Faced with cuts to fire department budgets, our members are being asked to give up pay raises, pay more for health benefits and confront company and stations closures, brownouts and layoffs.
In Washington, we made it a priority to have federal funding dedicated to fire departments to keep our members safe and on the job. Working with the Obama administration and congressional leaders, we were successful in proposing and passing legislation to waive existing requirements to allow Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grants to be used to rehire laid-off fire fighters and prevent future staffing reductions. These changes are especially significant during this economic crisis that has caused widespread layoffs of IAFF members across the country.
I strongly urge affiliates to work with their fire departments to apply for SAFER money. As we all know, adequate staffing is critical to effective response and fire fighter and public safety. The new SAFER guidelines will apply to the $210 million that Congress approved for SAFER for Fiscal Year 2009, and we are already working with the Department of Homeland Se curity (DHS) to develop the rules to address the current wave of staffing cuts.
The IAFF wrote and lobbied for the new provision -- which was included in HR 2346, the Supplemental Appropriation bill – and will ensure that the rules relax and eliminate much of the bureaucracy so that troubled departments can get grants quickly to bring back laid-off fire fighters and fill staffing positions that have remained vacant.
Additionally, we are focused on eliminating many of the issues that prevented departments from applying for SAFER grants under the old rules so that funds obtained to fix problems and grant money used to expand departments will be less encumbered, as well. To that end, we will discuss issues such as potentially eliminating the match requirement and the money jurisdictions were required to come up with for maintenan ce of the grant in the old rules, as well as possibly raising the cap, among a number of other issues.
We have prepared Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that help explain what the changes mean for your fire department and provide a potential timeline for the new rules to be in place so your department can begin applying for the grants.
–Harold Schaitberger, IAFF General President
|
|
House Approves Doubling SAFER Funding
July 1, 2009 – The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a Homeland Security Appropriation bill that doubles funding for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program. The bill calls for spending $420 million on the program, which provides grants to help communities hire fire fighters. The bill also provides funding for a variety of other fire service programs, including $390 million for the Assistance Firefighters Grant (AFG) program, commonly known as FIRE Act grants.
“As municipalities continue to struggle to fund fire department budgets, it is more important than ever that the federal government shoulder its share of the public safety burden,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. “I applaud the House for recognizing the importance of the SAFER program, and for providing the resources we need to protect our members.”
The SAFER appropriation is especially significant in light of a new law that expands the use of SAFER grants. Language contained in a supplemental appropriation bill, which has been signed into law by President Obama, will allow fire departments to use SAFER funds to rehire fire fighters who were laid off and restore cuts made to staffing as a result of the financial crisis, in addition to providing grants to grow fire departments.
Before giving final approval to the legislation, the House overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that would have cut funding for the SAFER and FIRE Act grant programs by a vote of 113-318. The amendment, offered by Representative Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), would have reduced funding for the FIRE Act and SAFER program by $210 million.
The legislation now moves to the Senate, where a similar funding bill has already won approval in the Appropriations Committee. The full Senate is likely to act on the spending bill within the next few weeks. Both the House and Senate have made it a priority to fund President Obama’s request for doubling the SAFER budget.
|
|
