Date: 2003-11-21
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker. let me apologize for being late. I was told to be here by 12. and I was in a briefing. so I came running. Let me thank the chairman of the Subcommittee on Research of the Committee on Science. the staff and the other leadership of the committee for working on this bill. I rise in support of Senate bill 1152. the United States Fire Administration Reauthorization Act of This legislation is closely related to H.R. 2692. which I joined Research Subcommittee Chairman SMITH in introducing and which was ordered reported by the Committee on Science on July 22. I would like to thank Chairman SMITH for working with me in a collegial way in the development of the fire authorization bill. The version of the authorization bill before the House preserves the key features of H.R. 2692. The Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974. which created the U.S. Fire Administration. was intended to address a serious problem affecting the safety of all Americans. Much progress has been made as a result of this legislation to advance public education about fire safety. to improve the effectiveness of the fire services throughout the Nation. and to foster the wider use of home fire safety devices. Nevertheless. the United States still has one of the highest fire death rates among advanced nations. and fire deaths exceed the loss of life from all natural disasters combined. Clearly. much work remains to be done in order to make needed improvements in the Nations fire safety record. I believe that S. 1152 will ensure that the U.S. Fire Administration has the resources and policies in place to help achieve this goal. E 1145 One matter of concern is that the effectiveness of the U.S. fire administration could suffer due to its submersion in the new Department of Homeland Security. which understandably must concentrate its efforts on combating threats from terrorism. The legislation seeks to preserve the status and visibility of the fire administration and its vital programs to advance fire safety within the Department of Homeland Security. To achieve this result. the bill reestablishes the position of fire administrator as a Presidentially appointed and Senateconfirmed post. This is appropriate given the role of the Fire Administrator as the lead advocate for fire services within the Federal Government. Another important function of the U.S. Fire Administration is to support research and development and testing of new firefighting technologies. This bill reemphasizes this role and authorizes new funding to help carry it out. including support for the process for developing consensus standards for the performance of new fire protection and control technologies. Consistent with supporting the development of appropriate voluntary consensus standards for new firefighting equipment. the bill requires that equipment provided under the fire grants program conform to such standards where they exist. Fire grants provide fire departments across the Nation with the equipment and training they need to meet their important responsibilities in protecting the public from fire hazards. The Fire Administrator is given flexibility in applying the standards requirement for these grants so that the fire departments may propose solutions that make the most sense for their particular circumstances. Provision for this flexibility in the bill is in accordance with the recommendations received during the Committee on Science hearing on the legislation. The bill makes an additional modification to the statute creating the Fire Grants Program by specifying that awards to support training may include training firefighting personnel and maritime firefighting. The need for such training was ably advocated by the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Wu). championed this provision. Madam Speaker. this bill is a bipartisan piece of legislation that authorizes the activities of a small. but extremely valuable. Federal agency that contributes to the safety of all Americans. I am pleased to commend the measure to my colleagues and ask for their support in the passage of this bill in the House. Madam Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.