CONGRESS: YEAR IN REVIEW
CAPITOL CONNECTION
List year will be remembered for indecision and last-minute panic on major issues: clean air, civil rights, crime, child care, and reform of agricultural programs. It will be remembered for the S&L mess, Senator Helm’s attack on federally funded porno, the Hubble rubble, and the confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice. More than anything, 1990 will be remembered for the twin piques: Saddam Hussein stealing Kuwait and official Washington stealing off into the night to draft a program of budget cuts that may have trimmed some political careers more than it did the deficit.
But for all of the low blows and high drama, 1990 was one hell of a year politically for the fire service and 1991 promises considerably more. This past year the Congressional Fire Services Caucus got results—sometimes with the help of fire service groups, sometimes in spite of them. What were the big developments?
- Enactment of the hotel-motel sprinkler bill. The big story here is not that Congress finally passed a sprinkler bill but that when it counted, local fire officials—not their federal lobbyists—outmaneuvered the hotel industry.
- Inclusion of the Fire Service Mobilization Act in the farm bill. This measure will provide money to help rural departments with forest fires. The smart move here: attaching the act to legislation that must pass. Once again, no national fire group was near the real action.
- Exemption of halon “for firefighting purposes” until the year 2000 from the Clean Air Act. One interesting development: Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), chairman of the powerful Health and Environment Subcommittee, helping Curt Weldon. Waxman has jurisdiction over many environmental, health, and safety issues of concern to the fire community. He is tough and could be an important fire service ally in years to come.
- Appointment of Olin Greene as U.S. Fire Administrator and Wallace Stickney as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. These leaders are strong and capable enough to reverse years of antifire service sentiment at FEMA. The Stickney-Greene duo may not make firefighters happy with every decision, but their appointment was one of
- 1990’s highlights.
- Congressional pressure to place the National Fire Academy back under the U.S. Fire Administration, where observers believe it will receive the direction and support it sorely needs. It was within FEMA Director Stickney’s authority to place the Academy where it belongs, but it’s nice to know that someone was paying attention to years of fire service complaints. That someone—Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, who placed the directive in the all-important appropriations bill —is one of Washington’s most solid performers. If FEMA doesn’t do the job right, she’ll make Hurricane Hugo look like Bambi.
- Enactment of the fire-safe cigarette bill. Two years of inaction were ended by the two congressmen who had sponsored differing bills but were willing to negotiate the differences. The story here: Rep. Curt Weldon’s behind-the-scenes work to encourage an end to the stalemate and Rep. Doug Walgren’s work as newly appointed chair of the Consumer Subcommittee of the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee. Both there and at the Science Committee, Walgren got things done for the fire service. Walgren was not reelected to Congress— his absence will be felt.
- Defeat of the notorious “Applegate bill.” This measure would have forced chemical companies, truckers, railroads, and others to pay a “per shipment” fee to pay for a national
- hazardous-materials computer tracking program. Instead, firefighters must live with a chemical industry-sponsored bill that provides the fire service with no resources while eliminating, through preemption, their ability to deal with haz-mat problems on the state and local level. Far from putting the issue to rest, it promises to bring it to a rolling boil in Congress this year.
In addition to the haz-mat issue, the 102nd Congress will focus on some issues you’d expect, and some that you may not:
Labor issues. The U.S. Department of Labor may growl louder with more aggressive enforcement of OSHA regulations affecting firefighters, a closer look at affirmative action in fire departments, and a messy situation involving volunteer firefighters and the minimum wage law.
The environment. In 1990 the battle was over halon. There may be tougher fights ahead. For example:
- Some of the chemicals being banned in the clean air bill (like the cements used with floor tiles) can only be replaced by chemicals that are highly flammable and explosive. In a nation with one of the highest fire death rates in the world, that’s one heck of a trade-off.
- Global warming will replace ozone depletion as the environmental problem of the decade in the eyes of lawmakers. Will carbon dioxide extinguishers be limited? That’s actually been suggested by those concerned about CO2 and the greenhouse effect.
- Fire protection on board oil tankers will be an issue as will the continuing battle over ground water contamination caused by the concentrated use of fire suppression foams and dry chemicals at fire academies for training purposes.
- Noise pollution caused by sirens and alarms systems is already an environmental concern in some regions.
In coming months we’ll take a look at the legislative year as it unfolds. We’ll look at specific issues and bills., the congressional heroes and goats…the special and not-so special interests…and we will try to make sense of at least some of it.
