Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Moving Forward With The Bipartisan Fire Grants And Safety Act

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the need to pass the bipartisan Fire Grants and Safety Act. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

We’re trying to move on on bipartisan legislation that really matters to the average American person, and one of these is going to be the Fire Grants and Safety Act. Later today, the Senate will vote to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the Fire Grants and Safety Act.

This bipartisan legislation would make sure that both SAFER and AFG, two federal grant programs that our paid and volunteer firefighters rely on, remain available. If we don’t extend these grants, they’ll expire in a few months and leave our firefighters without access to the resources they need to keep our communities safe.

Our firefighters, paid and volunteer, are brave, they risk their lives for us, they run to danger, not away from it. We need to ensure they have the equipment and personnel necessary to do their jobs, for their own safety and the safety of those they serve to protect. We need this especially in smaller, more rural, more suburban areas, where there often isn’t enough revenue to afford more resources. I urge my colleagues to vote yes so we can move forward quickly on this legislation.

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