Urgent news for 7/22/03

[E229Lt]

URGENT !

Senator Byrd (D-WV) has introduced an amendment expected to be voted on THIS AFTERNOON, JULY 22 to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill. This amendment would provide an additional $729.5 million for the fire service. The additional money would be for:

$150 million to fully fund the FIRE Act at $900 million
$250 million to high threat and high population density urban areas
$250 million for Office of Domestic Preparedness formula grants; these are the grants made to states based upon a population formula, and
$79.5 million for interoperable communications equipment

This amendment will need 60 votes (a supermajority) to pass the Senate. Please call your Senator (regardless of party!) and urge them to support the Byrd amendment when it comes for a vote! This amendment will help fire fighters get the resources they desperately need.

Your action is needed immediately. Simply tell your respective Senators to vote in favor of the Byrd amendment to help this nation's fire fighters.

[tanker5117]

E229Lt, is there any update on the vote?

Tanker.

[CJMinick390]

Good ol' Senator Byrd. His heart is in the right place on this one.

[Adze39]

That's good and all, but I wonder what else is in the ammendment or original bill that might cause it to get shot down.

Not knowing the wording of the bill or ammendment, this is just speculation: It's very possible that he knows the bill will not pass or get vetoed and he's doing this to make himself look good. Then again, his heart can be in the right place...I just never trust politicians.

[E229Lt]

Senate is in recess until 3:30 est. Call now while your Senators staff are compiling response data from their constituents.

This is only asking you to make two calls, find your numers here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

[E229Lt]

Adze.

I received the first post as an urgent email from the IAFF. I cut and pasted it verbatim. (See post 1)

While I always question politicians, I also listen to my union and make the call when asked.

[RspctFrmCalgary]

I tried to do my part, emailed everyone on my list. Please keep us posted! *fingers crossed*

[E229Lt]

Sen. Byrd (D) just spent about 45 minutes presenting his ammendment.

In rebuttle, the distinguished gentleman from Mississippi, Thad Cochran (R) proceeded to shot down many points of Byrd's funding as un-needed. ie. border security, air cargo security, chemical plant security, et al. All of these items, Mr Cochran pointed out, already were already sufficiently, if not over funded already.

Then he came to the $780 million for first responders and the city and states who fund them. To this he could only say, " we've done the best we can". He couldn't say it was not needed, just, we can't afford it.

That my friends is it in a nutshell, they know and agree we need more funding but we're not worth the money.

Quorum Call...

[E229Lt]

Some thanks should go to Sens. Clinton, NY. Reid, NV. Dodd, CT. for their support. Sen. Dodd will be introducing additional Fire funding ammendments in the near future.

Sen Byrd points out, the $1.7B ammendment would fund the defense departments current budget for exactly 42 hours of operations in Iraq today, yet some from the right side of the floor don't want to spend it for a year of homeland protection.

I have a union meeting in 1 1/2 hour so I'm outta here. Just wanted to give a little play by play today.

[webteam]

This effort unfortunately did fail. See top story on the site. S

WebTeam

[E229Lt]

Note to self: Vote Democrat across the board!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Adze39]

Originally posted by E229Lt
Adze.

I received the first post as an urgent email from the IAFF. I cut and pasted it verbatim. (See post 1)

Artie,

I received the following from the CFPC List Serve which received it from the NVFC (CFPC = Commission on Fire Prevention and Control...the CT agency that deals with the fire service)

URGENT!! URGENT!! - ACTION NEEDED TODAY

Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) is offering an amendment TODAY to the FY 2004 Homeland Security Appropriations bill to increase funding for the FIRE Act and other First Responder programs.

Sen. Byrd's office is asking all firefighters to contact their Senators in support of this amendment. To find your Senators' telephone numbers go to: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

More detail is provided below:

Senator Byrd (D-WV) has introduced an amendment expected to be voted on THIS AFTERNOON, JULY 22 to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill. This amendment would provide an additional $729.5 million for the fire service. The additional money would be for:

$150 million to fully fund the FIRE Act at $900 million
$250 million to high threat and high population density urban areas
$250 million for Office of Domestic Preparedness formula grants; these are the grants made to states based upon a population formula.
$79.5 million for interoperable communications equipment

This amendment will need 60 votes (a super majority) to pass the Senate. Please call your Senator (regardless of party!) and urge them to support the Byrd amendment when it comes for a vote! This amendment will help firefighters get the resources they desperately need.

Your action is needed immediately. Simply tell your respective Senators to vote in favor of the Byrd amendment to help the nation's firefighters.

So...the CFPC received it from the NVFC. You received it from the IAFF. Wonder where it started from? Probably the IAFF Lobbyists. Not an important question, just pondering.

[Adze39]

Originally posted by E229Lt
Some thanks should go to Sens. Clinton, NY. Reid, NV. Dodd, CT. for their support. Sen. Dodd will be introducing additional Fire funding ammendments in the near future.

I'm Republican but Dodd will always have my vote. He's a good man. He cares about his constituents. Lieberman on the other hand...my deep seeded dislike for him goes back to high school. He doesn't care about his constituents, only his own political career. It's an opinion of him I developed back in high school and still holds true today.

[E229Lt]

Dodd said he had numerous, fire based proposals which he would present as ammendments to the bill. Now that Byrd's has been shot down, perhaps a more focused ammendment will have legs. As I stated earlier, Thad Cochran could not deny the needs of the fire service are great.

I, like you, am a registered Republican. The only reason is because of the old saying, "Keep your friends close, but keep your enimies closer".

The recent surge of anti-labor from the right side of the floor makes it that much more important for me to have a say in the primaries. ie. "let's make the Department of Homeland Security a non-union shop and float a bill to eliminate overtime"

[EastKyFF]

Excusion of my confusion

Somebody help me out here. Did the Senate's web site get something backwards? We wanted people to vote "yea", right? So why is it that everybody you all are praising for supporting it is listed under "nay"--specifically, all the Dems except one--and everybody that's getting slammed voted "yea"--specifically, all the Republicans and that one lonely Dem? The site says 50 yea, 43 nay, motion failed because it needed 60, and as I said, all the supporters are listed as nays, including Byrd, Clinton, and others.

Somebody 'splain this to me!

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=1&vote=00291