Resolution No. 41 COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT: Legislative Re: FEMA Urban Search & Rescue Funding

Transcription

1 Resolution No. 41 COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT: Legislative Re: FEMA Urban Search & Rescue Funding 1 WHEREAS, America s National Urban Search 2 and Rescue Response System was created in 1989 to 3 deal with rescue operations in collapsed buildings; 4 and 5 WHEREAS, a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue 6 Task Force (US&R Task Force) is a team of 7 individuals, primarily comprised of IAFF members 8 who specialize in urban search and rescue, disaster 9 recovery, as well as emergency triage and medicine; 10 and 11 WHEREAS, these 28 FEMA US&R teams and 12 their task force members are known throughout the 13 globe as the gold standard in search, rescue, technical 14 specialists and emergency triage at large scale man- 15 made and natural disasters; and 16 WHEREAS, these teams are deployed to 17 emergencies and disaster sites throughout the United 18 States and the world, and 19 WHEREAS, these teams and associated IAFF 20 members have in the past been deployed to such 21 globally and nationally historic disasters such as: 22 Hurricane Iniki, Kauai, Hawaii September 23 11, Northridge earthquake, Los Angeles County, 25 California January 17, Oklahoma City bombing, Oklahoma City, 27 Oklahoma April 19, Hurricane Opal, Fort Walton Beach, Florida 29 October 6, 1995

2 30 Humberto Vidal Explosion, Rio Piedras, 31 Puerto Rico November 21, Explosion of DeBruce grain elevator, Wichita, 33 Kansas June 8, Izmit, Turkey earthquake August 17, Athens, Greece earthquake September 7, Hurricane Floyd North Carolina September 38 16, Düzce, Turkey earthquake November 12, World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, 42 New York, NY, and Washington, D.C. 43 September 11, Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City, Utah 45 February 8-24, 2002 (Task Forces acted in a 46 supporting role) 47 Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Ernesto Greensburg, Kansas tornado Hurricanes Ike and Gustav Port-au-Prince. Haiti earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake Tōhoku, Japan earthquake and tsunami 2011; 54 and 55 WHEREAS, there are 28 US&R Task Forces in 56 the United States, each sponsored by a local agency 57 and supported by hundreds of IAFF union members 58 from scores of different locals, these sponsoring 59 agencies include: 60 AZ-TF1 Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix Fire 61 Department

3 62 CA-TF1 Los Angeles, California Los 63 Angeles City Fire Department 64 CA-TF2 Los Angeles County, California 65 Los Angeles County Fire Department 66 CA-TF3 Menlo Park, California Menlo 67 Park Fire Department 68 CA-TF4 Oakland, California Oakland Fire 69 Department 70 CA-TF5 Orange County, California 71 Orange County Fire Authority 72 CA-TF6 Riverside, California Riverside 73 Fire Department 74 CA-TF7 Sacramento, California 75 Sacramento Fire Department 76 CA-TF8 San Diego, California San Diego 77 Fire Department 78 CO-TF1 Colorado, West Metro Fire and 79 Rescue Protection District 80 FL-TF1 Miami-Dade County, Florida 81 Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department 82 FL-TF2 Miami, Florida City of Miami Fire 83 and Rescue Department 84 IN-TF1 Indianapolis, Indiana-Indianapolis 85 Fire Department 86 MD-TF1 Montgomery County, Maryland 87 Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service 88 MA-TF1 Beverly, Massachusetts 89 MO-TF1 Boone County, Missouri Boone 90 County Fire Protection District 91 NE-TF1 Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln Fire & 92 Rescue Department 93 NJ-TF1 State of New Jersey Office of

4 94 Emergency Management-- Lakehurst, New 95 Jersey 96 NV-TF1 Clark County, Nevada Clark 97 County Fire Department 98 NY-TF1 New York City, New York Fire 99 Department of New York, FDNY 100 OH-TF1 Dayton, Ohio- Dayton Fire 101 Department 102 PA-TF1 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania- 103 Philadelphia Fire Department 104 TN-TF1 Memphis, Tennessee City of 105 Memphis Fire Department 106 TX-TF1 College Station, Texas Texas 107 Engineering Extension Service 108 UT-TF1 Salt Lake City, Utah Unified Fire 109 Authority 110 VA-TF1 Fairfax County, Virginia Fairfax 111 County Fire & Rescue Department 112 VA-TF2 Virginia Beach, Virginia Virginia 113 Beach Fire Department 114 WA-TF1 Washington, Pierce County 115 Department of Emergency Management; 116 and 117 WHEREAS, it is a very labor intensive 118 undertaking to remain in a constant state of readiness 119 while simultaneously maintaining individual team 120 member training requirements, fulfilling rigorous 121 daily tool and apparatus maintenance, as well as 122 consistently inventorying hundreds of tons of 123 specialized equipment needed to fulfill the mission of 124 every US&R team throughout the country; and 125 WHEREAS, these 28 US&R teams require

5 126 annual readiness funding from the federal 127 government in order to maintain their continual state 128 of readiness in order to perform their duty when 129 deployed; and 130 WHEREAS, this annual federal subsidy is an 131 essential part of FEMA Task Force funding, without 132 which national FEMA US&R teams could not 133 possibly maintain their level of response readiness, 134 and previous funding lapses have seriously affected 135 the annual budget of sponsoring agencies; and 136 WHEREAS, individual IAFF local 137 representatives, IAFF staff and national fire chiefs 138 must each year sporadically request an appropriate 139 level of funding, lobby the respective appropriations 140 committee or react to House of Representative bills 141 or the President s budget which may adversely 142 impact FEMA US&R team funding, and do so 143 without the coordinated national support of IAFF 144 local s on behalf of the sponsoring agencies and 145 associated fire departments who count on this 146 essential funding in order to maintain a high level of 147 FEMA Task Force readiness; and 148 WHEREAS, on behalf of the entire 149 membership, hundreds of IAFF officers and directors 150 travel to Washington, D.C. to attend the annual 151 Alfred K. Whitehead IAFF Legislative Conference 152 and are given an updated IAFF Briefing Binder 153 containing the most current IAFF member issues that 154 need to be lobbied on Capitol Hill with the 155 congressional delegations from their home states; 156 therefore be it 157 RESOLVED, The IAFF Briefing Binder shall 158 each year contain information needed for IAFF

6 159 leaders, members and staff to effectively lobby the 160 U.S. Congress to properly fund the 28 FEMA US&R 161 Task Force teams and do so in a coordinated fashion 162 at the annual Alfred K. Whitehead IAFF Legislative 163 Conference; and be it further 164 RESOLVED, That an educational briefing will 165 be conducted at the IAFF Legislative Conference in 166 similar fashion to all agenda items and the IAFF 167 presidents who represent the IAFF union members 168 on the 28 FEMA Task Force sponsoring agencies 169 will be briefed on the annual amount requested prior 170 to the Legislative Conference. Submitted by: Local 3631, Orange County, CA Local 1664 Montgomery County, MD Local 522, Sacramento, CA Cost Estimate: None COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION: CONVENTION ACTION: