Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. MITCHELL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 4847, the U.S. Fire Administration Reauthorization Act…
Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
(Mr. MITCHELL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 4847, the U.S. Fire Administration Reauthorization Act of 2008, a bill I introduced with the original cosponsor, my good friend from Georgia, Dr. Gingrey.
Firefighters are often the first to arrive at an emergency scene and the last to leave. Whether it is putting out a house fire or a wild fire, or responding to a terrorist attack or car accident, we depend on firefighters every day. But firefighters also depend on us; they depend on the public and their elected officials to make sure that they have the resources, the equipment, and the training they need to do their job. Without those tools, we put them and all of us at risk.
The U.S. Fire Administration is an invaluable resource for our Nation's firefighters and the communities they protect. Through training, data collection, fire education for the public, and support for fire-related research and development, the USFA provides critical tools and leadership to the Fire Service.
Fire is one of nature's most destructive forces. In 1973, when USFA was created, over 6,000 Americans died each year in fires and another 100,000 were injured. Through the leadership of USFA and others, the number of people killed by fires each year is now between 3,000 and 3,500, with approximately 16,000 people who were injured. We can all be proud of the significant reduction. However, 3,000 Americans a year is still too many, especially when so many of these deaths and injuries are from our most vulnerable populations, children and the elderly.
In addition, the Nation still suffers over $11 billion per year in direct losses due to fire, and the trend for this number is going up, not down. With statistics like these, it is clear that fire continues to be a major problem for the U.S. H.R. 4847 reauthorizes this important agency for 4 years at funding levels that will enable USFA to carry out fully its mission.
At a hearing with the Technology and Innovation Subcommittee held last fall, we heard the priorities of the Nation's fire service communities for USFA. This bill directly reflects their priorities.
This bill authorizes the USFA to focus on the pressing challenges of fighting fires in the wildland-urban interface, and fires involving hazardous materials, as well as advanced topics of emergency medical services.
Back home in Arizona, one of the toughest challenges our firefighters face is wildfires in the wildland-urban interface. This is an important year for wildfires. We have had a pretty wet winter which means a great deal of shrubs and bushes have grown at lower elevations. When the summer months heat up and the vegetation dries out, those shrubs and bushes will turn into tinder that can start a fast-moving wildfire in urban areas. Those fires threaten homes and lives. Fighting wildfires in urban areas requires special training, and I am proud that this legislation enhances fire administration training for wildland-urban interface fires.
Firefighters today are called upon to respond to an ever-broader range of emergencies. This authorization bill gives USFA the authority to make sure its training program keeps pace with the increasing challenges to the fire service.
The bill also addresses an important priority of the fire service in USFA, and that is to update the National Fire Incident Reporting System, or NFIRS. This system provides important data on fire events to policymakers at all levels of government. The current system is slow to report the data to the National Fire Data Center, and does not capture data on every fire, thus limiting its value to users. H.R. 4847 would direct USFA to update NFIRS to a real-time reporting, web-based system.
The bill also directs the U.S. Fire Administrator to continue USFA's leadership in firefighter health and safety. Every year over 100 firefighters die in the line of duty. H.R. 4847 directs USFA to educate local fire departments about national voluntary consensus standards for firefighter health and safety, and to encourage local departments to adopt these standards. This provision will help reduce the tragic loss of life the fire service suffers each year in line-of-duty deaths by promoting good practices in a variety of fire emergencies.
I also understand there have been some concerns that this provision would affect the jurisdiction of NIOSH, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. I would like to reassure my colleagues that it is not my intent for this bill to have any effect on NIOSH or any other agency of the Department of Health and Human Services.
H.R. 4847 is the product of bipartisan collaboration, and is supported by major fire service organizations, including the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the International Association of Firefighters, the National Volunteer Fire Council, National Fire Protection Association, and the Congressional Fire Services Institute.
The resources and leadership of the USFA are an essential part of the ability of the fire service to protect our cities, towns and communities. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Gordon), the chairman of the Science and Technology Committee.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to yield 3 minutes to Mr. Pascrell, the gentleman from New Jersey.
I yield an additional minute to the gentleman.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to yield as much time as she may consume to Ms. Richardson, the gentlelady from California.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to yield as much time as he may consume to Mr. Wu, the gentleman from Oregon. He is the chairman of the Technology and Innovation Subcommittee. And I want to thank Chairman Wu for moving this bill so quickly through the subcommittee.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to yield as much time as he may consume to Mr. Matheson, the gentleman from Utah.
Thank you. We have some additional speakers that are on their way.
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, we do have a couple more speakers. They are on their way.
Mr. Chairman, if I may, I appreciate the good words that people have come and said before this body. We've made significant strides in reducing fire-related deaths and injuries since Congress first created this agency in the 1970s. But again, as we've noted, and all the speakers have noted, there are still more than 3,000 Americans that die every year from fires, and many more injured. And despite the decreases in the number of fires, the cost, as we said, is continually rising. And, in fact, it's roughly the same cost, the damage of fires is roughly the same cost as caused by hurricanes.
We know that the Fire Service provides critical assistance in protecting our communities from emergency events. From house fires to terrorist events to natural disasters, firefighters, as we've noted, are not only the first on the scene, but many times the last to leave.
As the wildfires in California last fall demonstrated, the Fire Service plays a vital role in protecting our communities, and that's why we introduced H.R. 4847, to reauthorize the U.S. Fire Administration and provide additional resources for our Nation's firefighters.
The U.S. Fire Administration is an invaluable resource for over 1.3 million firefighters and emergency personnel around the country. Through training, educational materials, data collection and other services, the USFA provides tools and leadership to firefighters and communities that they serve.
H.R. 4847 will reauthorize the USFA, funding its critical work until the Fiscal Year 2012. This bill will ensure that our firefighters are trained to handle modern-day challenges facing today's first responders, including, as we have mentioned before, firefighting in the wildland-urban interface and responding to hazardous material incidents.
The bill is supported by, and we've listed a whole list of these before, all of these national associations that deal with firefighting.
This bill is the product of bipartisan collaboration and had considerable input from the Fire Service community.
We encourage you to help support firefighters in your district by ensuring that everyone has the resources they need by supporting this important legislation.
I would reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Chairman, I would, again, like to yield as much time as he may consume to Mr. Wu, the gentleman from Oregon, who is the chairman of the Technology and Innovation Subcommittee. I, again, want to thank him for all the efforts he's put into this bill.
I would like to yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Miller).
I would like to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson).
Mr. Chairman, we have no further speakers.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And first, I would like to thank Mr. Gingrey and all of his staff for the support they've given this important piece of legislation. And it's the least we can do, here in Congress, to provide the resources necessary for our first responders to react, the education that's involved, the training, particularly in areas that are very important, like in Arizona and California where there is a wildfire/urban interface.
As I said earlier, we have had a very wet winter in Arizona. It's good and bad. It brings out the wild flowers; it brings out a lot of green. But at the same time, in the lower elevations it brings out a lot of dry tender which just really is very dangerous this time of year.
So I would like to thank everyone, the staffs on both sides, the committee chairman, the subcommittee chairman, everyone who dealt with this particular issue.
And I, again, want to thank all of the firefighters, the professional people who are involved, who gave us what they felt is necessary to move this bill forward and to give them the tools that they need.
This piece of legislation will last until 2012. At that time, of course, we will have more input. Hopefully, we won't have as many disasters or types of disasters, but there will be new things that we need to learn and train for.
So I appreciate, again, everyone's efforts in this, and I know that the people around this country who are protected by these first responders also appreciate what we are doing for them today.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I also want to say thank you to Mr. Gingrey for his support of this amendment, which we know will make this a much stronger bill and a better bill.
So I thank you very much for the amendment and all the support that it's receiving.
Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.
I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).
I yield back the balance of my time, Mr. Chairman.