Sarbanes Award to Recognize Fire Departments That Promote Firefighter Safety and the 16 Life Safety Initiatives On April 6, 2006, at the 18th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner, Chief Bill Jenaway, president of the Congressional Fire Services Institute, announced the re-formation of an award to recognize fire departments that aggressively adopt the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives and embrace a firefighter safety culture in their organizations. Named in honor of Senator Paul Sarbanes, a longtime supporter of fire service issues on Capitol Hill, the award will be sponsored by the Congressional Fire Services Institute and co-sponsored by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, with important corporate assistance from Motorola, Inc., State Farm Insurance, and the Glatfelter Insurance Group. Immediately following his speech at the National Dinner, Chief Jenaway paid tribute to Senator Sarbanes in announcing the award: "Senator Sarbanes, the fire service truly owes you a debt of gratitude for your leadership and support for our cause throughout your illustrious career as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and United States Senate. Your leadership has saved lives -- the lives of many firefighters and rescue personnel. And your leadership has made an immeasurable difference in the lives of family members who have lost a fallen hero. "To show our appreciation and gratitude for your legacy supporting first responders, the CFSI Board of Directors voted unanimously to enhance our Fire Service Organization of the Year Award and to rename it the Senator Paul S. Sarbanes Fire Service Organization of the Year Award. The award will be co-sponsored with another organization that considers you its best friend -- the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. In addition, State Farm Insurance and Glatfelter Insurance Group will serve as corporate co-sponsors." "Although many of the details need to be worked out, the focus of the award will be on firefighter health and safety. Using the 16-point criteria developed by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and endorsed by the major fire organizations, the award will be presented to a fire organization at the local, state or national level or fire and emergency services departments that are guided by the pursuit of a safe and healthy fire and emergency services. We will present the first award at the 19th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner on March 29, 2007. We hope you can be there for the presentation." "At an event earlier today, it was announced that Motorola Incorporated and the Motorola Foundation will donate $1 million to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. These funds will support an expansion of the Paul Sarbanes Scholarship Fund and will also support the annual National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and other programs NFFF provides to its fire service survivors. Thank you, Motorola for your generous support of the Foundation." "And so on behalf of my fellow firefighters and rescue personnel, congratulations to you, Senator, for an incredible legacy of service to this great nation."

Editor's note: Senator Paul Sarbanes was one of the founding congressional leaders of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus in 1988. Throughout his tenure as U.S. senator, he has been a strong advocate on fire service issues, and was a great friend to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. On April 6, he delivered this farewell address to the fire service at the 18th National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner.

Good evening. As one of the Co-Chairmen of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, I am delighted to join you once again, at the Congressional Fire Services Institute's 18th Annual Dinner.

Regrettably, this will be the last of these annual events I will attend as a sitting United States Senator. I am proud to have enjoyed a close relationship with the Fire Services since first joining the Congress in 1971, and have eagerly anticipated this annual dinner for the past 18 of those years.

I would like to commend Senator Biden for his terrific leadership as the current Chairman of the Caucus, as well as my fellow Co-Chairmen, Senators McCain and DeWine, and Congressmen Hoyer, Boehlert, Andrews, and Weldon.

I also want to express my appreciation to David Paulison for his remarks this evening. Chief Paulison, as I would still like to refer to him, did a terrific job leading the U.S. Fire Administration in Emmitsburg, Maryland, for nearly four years. Understanding the needs and challenges of the nation's fire services, as well as our other first responders, is critical in formulating an effective strategy for our national emergency management efforts. That is why I am particularly pleased that Chief Paulison - the former head of the Miami-Dade County Fire Department - is now serving as Acting Director of FEMA.

I would like to give special thanks to Hal Bruno for once again serving as the Master of Ceremonies at this year's dinner. As you know, Hal has had a long and distinguished association with the Fire Service, and has tirelessly devoted himself to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, as well as the Congressional Fire Services Institute.

I would also like to recognize and thank the Maryland Fire Service Honor Guard, which made the Presentation of the Colors at the outset of tonight's dinner. It is my understanding 14 of Maryland's counties are represented by the Honor Guard this evening.

Let me also recognize the work of Bill Webb and the staff at the Congressional Fire Services Institute. They do an absolutely terrific job in communicating the needs of our nation's first responders to the Congress. Their hard work, in turn, provides the support and information needed for those of us trying to serve the needs of the Fire Services on Capitol Hill.

Finally, I want to commend Ron Siarnicki and the continued work of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. As the steward of the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial and host of the annual National Memorial Service in Emmitsburg, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation continues to lead the nation in the most painful aspect of life in the Fire Services family - honoring and remembering America's fallen fire heroes. Perhaps equally as important, the Foundation has also provided critical resources to assist the survivors of the fallen, both at home and in the firehouse, in rebuilding their lives.

In that regard, I was extremely pleased by today's announcement that Motorola has pledged a four-year donation to the Foundation totaling one million dollars.

The Foundation has not simply accepted that line-of-duty deaths must continue at their current rate. The Foundation has taken a number of proactive steps to ensure that the number of fallen heroes they honor each year is as small as possible.

I know many of you attended the Foundation's "Firefighter Life Safety Summit" in 2004. Over 100 Fire and Emergency service organizations were represented at this summit, convened to discover ways in which the Fire Services could achieve the ambitious goal set forth by the USFA - to reduce firefighter deaths by 25 percent in 5 years, and by 50 percent in 10 years.

As you know, each year, the Institute selects a theme for the Dinner that not only reflects the events of the past year as they relate to the Fire Service, but also frames how we will focus on the service in the coming year.

In light of the important progress that was made at the 2004 conference on the reduction of line-of-duty deaths, I can think of no more appropriate theme than that of this year's dinner: "Leadership Saves Lives…So Everyone Goes Home."

When the alarm sounds, we all know that each and every firefighter will heed the call - this is what they have prepared for, both mentally and physically, and they will not hesitate to place themselves in harm's way.

But have we done all that is necessary to ensure that the risk of serious harm to our fire services personnel is minimized?

As part of the Line-of-Duty-Death Prevention conference, you - the fire services community - came to a consensus on a series of sixteen resolutions to bring us closer to that critical goal. In my view, this sixteen-point resolution is a valuable roadmap for the important steps we need to focus on in order to reduce firefighter fatalities.

Just recently, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation was awarded a one-million dollar grant through the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program- the largest grant possible - to implement the Everyone Goes Home Program.

This FIRE Act grant funding for the Foundation's efforts underscores the continuing importance of the Assistance to Firefighters Program, which funds firefighting equipment, firefighting vehicles, fire prevention and safety programs, and other fire operations needs.

Sadly, the current Administration has yet again failed the American Fire Services. In the budget for the coming fiscal year that the President sent to the Congress in early February, the Administration proposed drastically cutting the FIRE Act, as well as the SAFER Act - the two most important Federal programs for firefighters around the country.

Last year we funded the FIRE program at a level of $542 million, a 16 percent decrease from the FY05 level of $650 million, and approximately 27 percent less than the $745 million the program received in both FY2003 and FY2004.

In my view, these amounts are still inadequate to meet the pressing needs of fire departments around the country, and fall far short of the $1 billion level at which the program is authorized.

However, the President's Budget slashes even this modest amount, requesting only $293 million for the Assistance to Firefighters grant program in FY2007. This amount represents a $249 million cut from the current fiscal year's appropriated level - a disturbing 46 percent decrease.

The President's budget also eliminates all funding for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Act.

I offered an amendment last month during the Budget Committee's consideration of the Senate Budget Resolution that would have simply restored the FIRE and SAFER Acts to their current FY2006 funding levels of $542 million and $106 billion, respectively. The cost of this amendment was entirely offset by closing corporate tax loopholes. Unfortunately, this amendment fell on a party-line vote.

We had some modest victories for these two programs, however, when the Budget Resolution was considered on the floor of the Senate.

I cosponsored an amendment offered by Senators DeWine and Dodd that would create a reserve fund for the FIRE and SAFER grant programs. That amendment would ensure that budget points of order cannot be raised against future appropriations bill language or amendments that would increase funding for the FY 2007 FIRE and SAFER grant programs. The Senate unanimously accepted this amendment.

The Senate also passed an amendment that would call for the restoration of the FIRE and SAFER grants to their current levels. Unlike the amendment I offered in Committee, this amendment would not add additional funding to the budget for this purpose. Nonetheless, it represents a modest step in the right direction, and I was pleased by its passage.

I look forward to working with CFSI - and many of you - in the coming months to ensure that this program receives the support it deserves, and that we adequately address the other concerns of the fire services around the nation.

Together, I hope we can all achieve this goal, so that you have the resources you need to respond to the daily crises that face our communities.

In short, so that you are prepared for each and every alarm, and to ensure that "Everyone Goes Home."

Thank you, and goodnight.

Congressman Steny Hoyer, a longtime member of the Congressional Fire Caucus, addressed the assembly at the 18th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner in Washington, D.C. this past April. Following are excerpts of his speech.

"I would like to be serious for a moment and speak to the theme for this year's dinner - "Leadership Saves Lives...So Everyone Goes Home." I know it is easy to take a statement like that for granted, particularly in your line of work.

"But I hope each and every one of you will go home this week and take to heart how important this really is.

"When you get right down to it, the reason that [Congressman] Curt [Weldon] and [Senator] Paul [Sarbanes] and [Senator] Joe [Biden] and [Congressman] Rob [Andrews] and all the rest of us up here work so hard on so many issues for the fire service is precisely so that you all go home.

"The Congressional Fire Caucus works with your organizations very closely to identify and address some of the major challenges facing all of your departments.

"As a result of these efforts we have established and funded such critical federal programs as the Fire Grants and SAFER. These programs have provided billions of dollars to help meet the equipment, training and staffing needs of fire departments in large cities, small towns and rural communities across the country. And there is no doubt the dollars provided by these programs have helped save the lives of firefighters, and the citizens you protect. "But there is also no escaping the reality that despite all of our hard work, the amount of money devoted to these grants, and the impact of these programs on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of fire departments, we still lose more than 100 of you every year to line of duty deaths. "And so many of these deaths are preventable.

"The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and USFA recognized this, and convened the Firefighter Life Safety Summit in 2004, with a goal of reducing firefighter fatalities by 25 percent within five years and 50 percent within ten years.

"These are ambitious goals that will only be attained if every one of you in the fire service, from the presidents of national organizations to individual firefighters, is committed to these goals and to implementing the 16 initiatives recommended at the summit. These recommendations range from developing medical and physical fitness standards to empowering all firefighters to stop unsafe practices.

"I feel so strongly about this that I introduced a bill last year, and fought to have it adopted by the House of Representatives, that embraced the 16 recommendations and encouraged every department in America to participate in a national stand down, to raise awareness among our firefighters about the need to take responsibility for their health and safety.

"The job of fighting fires is one of the most dangerous and physically demanding activities one can undertake. The real tragedy is that we have allowed unsafe practices and unhealthy habits to make the job even more hazardous than it already is.

"Congress has, and will continue, to accept our responsibility to provide funding to address your equipment, training and staffing needs. But each and every one of you must accept your responsibility for making yourselves, and your colleagues, safer on the job. "So that truly everyone can go home."