Congressional Record — Senate 12367

wife, Denise and two sons, Harry, age 12, and Gerard, age 10. Brian Fahey leaves us with his wife, Mary and three sons: Brendan, who is 8 years old, and 3-year-old twins, Patrick and James. John Downing is survived by his wife Anne, his daughter Joanne, age 7, and his son Michael, who is 3. My thoughts and prayers are with these families. I am humbled by their devotion to public service. Their deaths represent the ultimate sacrifice a person can make for his or her fellow human beings. They died while fighting a fire and it is not hyperbole to say that they died while making America a safer place to live. I am always saddened to realize that it takes a tragedy like this to bring attention to the needs of fire departments and firefighters nationwide. I hope that the memory of these three men will help Americans realize the impact of firefighters on our daily lives. Firefighters are almost always the first in a community to respond to a call for help. They are on the scene of traffic accidents and construction accidents. When a natural or man-made calamity strikes—from hurricanes to school shootings to bombings—firefighters are there without fail, restoring order and saving lives. Unfortunately, fire departments across the Nation struggle to find resources to help keep our communities safe. As the demands placed on fire departments have grown in volume and magnitude, the ability of local residents to support them has been put to a severe test. As a result, towns and cities throughout the country are struggling mightily to provide the fire departments with the resources they require. For these reasons I have strongly supported helping localities meet their critical objectives. Communities need more firefighters and community firefighters need the resources to ensure that they have the training and equipment to protect themselves and the public. Last year we passed an important piece of legislation called the Firefighter Investment and Response Enhancement Act which authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide grants to local firefighters so they could purchase the equipment they need. Congress appropriated $100 for the program last year and the FEMA has just completed the first grant competition under the program. The demand is extraordinary. FEMA received nearly $3 billion worth of grant applications—that’s 30 times more in requests that is currently available. No amount of funding can bring back Firefighters Ford, Fahey, and Downing. New fire trucks or better training programs or even more firefighters cannot even begin to compensate for the loss suffered by the people of Queens and the families of these brave men. For their lives, we are forever indebted. But for their cause, we can dedicate ourselves to help ensure that no firefighter ever enters a burning building without the best possible training and equipment. So I stand here before you, Mr. President, and the members of this chamber to say that these men and their families shall not be forgotten. They have sacrificed their lives for us, and for this they deserve no less than the highest degree of honor and respect. We here today cannot compare our own deeds to those of Harry Ford, Brian Fahey, and John Downing, but we can bring honor to ourselves and justice to their memories by keeping them and the needs of the fire service in mind as we perform our own duties. Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution and preamble be agreed to en bloc, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The resolution (S. Res. 117) was agreed to. The preamble was agreed to. The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows: S. RES. 117