Congressman William J. Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) was sworn in to his sixth term in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the Eighth Congressional District of New Jersey in January 2007. In 1987, he was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly and eventually reached the position of minority leader pro tempore. In 1990, Pascrell was elected mayor of Paterson, New Jersey's third-largest city. Pascrell authored the Firefighter Investment and Response Enhancement (FIRE) Act, a federal grant program for local fire departments. Now titled the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, it is administered by the Department of Homeland Security and delivers federal dollars directly to career, combination and volunteer fire departments. The interview was conducted by Firehouse Contributing Editor Harry R. Carter, Ph.D., whose article "The 2006 FIRE Act Road Trip: The True Story" (October 2006) profiled his month-long tour of communities that have received FIRE Act grants. He also wrote the 2006 FIRE Act Road Trip Blog" on Firehouse.com and the book Living My Dream: Dr. Harry Carter's 2006 FIRE Act Road Trip.
FIREHOUSE: How did the idea for the FIRE Act come into being?
PASCRELL: In 1991, when I had been the mayor of Paterson for less than eight months, there was a huge fire encompassing an entire city block in the downtown section. There were actually two traumatic experiences from that fire. First, we lost a firefighter at that fire. Second, I was rushed to the hospital. I had taken in so much smoke that they had to put seven or eight needles in me to keep me alive. Thank God, a state trooper noticed my lips were turning blue. It was so cold and I was just so intensely involved because we had lost that firefighter within the first hour of the fire.
We found him three days later and took him out. I went back to the fire after I came out of the hospital, and I was there to see him being taken out. I vowed that I would do everything in my power as mayor, and I was in the State Legislature at the time as well, to do whatever I could for our firefighters, because I always thought that they were the neglected part of public safety.
FIREHOUSE: I recall that tragic fire. The firefighter's name was John Nicosia.
PASCRELL: So I took that sad experience with me to the Congress of the United States and committed myself to win the campaign, to do everything I could for our firefighters. I vowed that I would never forget them. I was going to do everything in support of the firefighters, just as I had been a supporter of the COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) program. I had sponsored the COPS program in the New Jersey Legislature, long before the Clinton administration had addressed it on a national level.
I also knew that it was important for municipalities to get whatever help they can in support of local fire departments. There were basic needs that had to be met for both volunteer and career firefighters. I brought that mindset into Congress and talked about it for my first couple of years. I spoke with people around the country and locally; both active and retired people. I developed a good picture in my mind of what I wanted to do, and then I started to bring a public safety advisory committee together. In 1998, they helped me put some thoughts together on this legislation. I finally completed the legislation in 1999 and went to the President with it.
I can recall that President Clinton told me that he didn't think I can get this passed. However, he told me that if I could get it passed, he would sign it. We had two or three staff people working on this piece of legislation for maybe eight or nine months. It was difficult because they just didn't think it was going anywhere.
I said, I'm staying on this thing. You have to remember that I was the new guy in town. Some of the congressmen were saying, who the hell is this guy to do this? So I said, the next time the firefighters come to town, we're going to set them loose in this Capitol, and they're going to knock on every door. To make a long story short, we got over 280 signatures on the bill, probably the most on any bill that year.
We got it passed on a bipartisan basis. We got the fire agencies. I was always on their case, because, as you know, you fire guys talk a good game, but sometimes you wonder why we aren't getting help. I worked with the fire organizations to show how much we needed this comprehensive plan for all fire departments. It was passed and President Clinton signed it in 2000.
We got our first money in 2001 and it has gone on from there. I want you to know, though, that it's been a struggle with the Bush administration to keep the money in there. They tried to zero it out twice. It doesn't stop me. I know this has bipartisan support; it's for not only a good cause, but it's for a worthy cause. In the original FIRE Act we had a provision for personnel; however, circumstance required me to cut it. I had to eat some crow on that, because it would have stopped the passage of the bill. Congress was not ready for it to come all in one swoop, so we came back again. I worked with Congressman Sherwood Boehlert from New York, and we wrote the SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) Act. This was modeled after the COPS program, and involved a three-year program of matching dollars and the diminishing numbers of the part of the federal government.
FIREHOUSE: Who assisted you in crafting the parameters of the initial legislation?
PASCRELL: I received at lot of help from retirees as well as from people who are active in police and fire departments now. The Public Safety Advisory Committee was as joint police and fire operation. Later on, we added a number of EMTs. There were a lot of people. My staff worked diligently, very diligently. They knew I wanted this, that I could taste it. People in the fire service finally believed it could happen - some of them, not all of them. Like I said, I only had two or three signatures the first eight months it existed, then it blossomed after the firefighters got to work.
FIREHOUSE: What was the original reception that your legislation received?
PASCRELL: Disbelief. People were asking how come nobody had ever thought of this before. To me, it wasn't any great inventive idea since we already had it for the cops. It worked so successfully for the cops - what are we, second-class citizens? - so I wouldn't be denied.
By the way, in the middle of that, early on after Clinton signed it, we lost six firefighters up in Worcester, MA. We had 35,000 firefighters there that day. I'll never forget that day as long as I live. I went to that memorial service in the auditorium and I'll never forget that day. I pledged that day, that nobody, I don't care what their political stripes were, was going to stop us from doing what needed to be done. Particularly, don't forget, that all of these things happened well before 9/11. After 9/11, we all talked about homeland security. We needed to talk about basic stuff the firefighters needed to have, from the training to apparatus to their gear. If they had thermal imaging equipment up there in Worcester, maybe those men could have been saved. They were going into that fire to save vagrants, and there weren't any vagrants. We were the vagrants, the public.
vFIREHOUSE: Let's discuss the hurdles and how you overcame them.
vPASCRELL: Persistence. I always try to make sure it's going to be a bipartisan effort. There is no Democrat or Republican way to help firefighters. I constantly kept trying to make sure I wasn't going to get involved in turf wars - (At) one point, when...I appeared before a Senate Committee, I said to Senator (John) Warner (of Virginia) that I would take my name off this bill if you can get somebody else's name on it and guarantee it's going to pass and send it to President Clinton. He looked at me and thought I was joking. I wasn't joking - It wasn't easy.
FIREHOUSE: How do you feel about your FIRE Act, now that it's been in existence for several years and has created a demonstrated record of good for our American fire service?
PASCRELL: When I talked to people in Montana, and when I talked to people in Alabama, when I spoke with people in Wyoming, I met a number of folks who have literally had to push fire apparatus to a fire. My main thrust in the first two years was to get money into these volunteer departments that had nothing. Of course, I'm a big-city guy, and I had to prove one way or another that this was going to be open to everybody. (When) they tell me of the success they have had with this, the minimal amount of bureaucracy, which they expected it was going to be an albatross, which it was not, and the way the decisions were made and the professionalism really permeated from this whole process, I feel very good about it. I really feel good about and I know it saves lives.
FIREHOUSE: One chief told me that the FIRE Act provided them with the first new pumper that their county had ever seen, so one of the things that I observed was the "trickle-down" effect and that was across the board.
PASCRELL: The money is going directly to the department, this is so critical. It's a partnership, so you can't do it without your council or mayor knowing about it; they have to sign onto this, there is matching money. We reduced the amount of matching money, in the legislation we reauthorized, and I think that's so important. These municipalities can't afford three-quarters of this stuff we're talking about anyway. It's a competitive basis and there are still 3,000 applications a year - that is amazing. Three billion dollars, if you add it all up, so don't tell me there are no basic needs in fire departments.
By the way, one of the great things about this program is that we send the folks from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) into central areas throughout the country to teach how to make an application. Three-quarters of the problems with our fire departments is they never did this before. They always stayed in the background, took the crumbs off the table. You have to be proactive, you'd better know what you're doing and you'd better prove your need.
FIREHOUSE: Has the SAFER Act been successful?
PASCRELL: Well, it hasn't been there that long. It seems as though they threw us a bone. We're up to I think $110 million for 2007, and I think the President wanted to zero out the SAFER Act. He didn't want any money going to support personnel at the local level. So there was $115 million in this past year's budget and, as you know, Paterson got a great grant. They had a terrific application and I was there to see 52 firefighters sworn in.
FIREHOUSE: Is there anything you would like to add about any aspect?
PASCRELL: Yes. I want to strengthen the SAFER Act because I think it's very important. I want to get a lot of money into that, if it's at all possible, and keep the share load of the municipalities as low as possible there so they will be interested. I don't want them to be scared and worry about what happens after three years. We've got to build the whole thing. Think about the first three years, when you didn't have that and you got this break. We're not just throwing people at you, you've got to prove you need these people, so I want to strengthen that. I also want to review the FIRE Act - how we can tighten it up a little bit, how we can help EMTs a little bit more than we're doing. I'm satisfied that these two acts are working; they're specific, definitive and I'm proud of the firefighters we're helping. Thank you and God bless.
