CFSI to present legislative issues to Congressional Fire Caucus
The Congressional Fire Services Institute will reintroduce to members of the Fire Service Caucus in the House and Senate several bills introduced but not acted on in the 103rd Congress. The bills to be reintroduced were chosen on the basis of a unanimous consensus vote of all voting members present at the CFSI National Advisory Council (NAC) meeting, held in Washington, DC, in October.
This new approach, according to Doug Brown of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, would establish a forum through which a unified fire service voice could be heard on Capitol Hill. The NAC meeting, chaired by Steve Austin of the International Association of Arson Investigators, was attended by 67 representatives from member organizations including the Alliance/ISFSI, IAFC, IAFF, NFPA, and NVFC.
Members also voted to have the CFSI staff advise the Caucus of the NAC`s unanimous desire to secure increased funding for the U.S. Fire Administration and the National Fire Academy and full funding of the Arson Prevention and Control Act, passed earlier this year. The funds are to represent “new money,” not money already earmarked for existing fire service-related programs.
In other matters, the membership voted to have the CFSI urge Carrye B. Brown, USFA administrator, to quickly fill the vacancy of EMS project director left by Gordon Sachs, who resigned to take a position with Responder magazine in Florida. Adding to the urgency of this action is the threat to fire service EMS posed by the private ambulance industry predicated through health care reform proposals and changing paradigms in health care.
