President Obama Proposes Billions for New Jobs Initiative to Hire Fire Fighters, Preferences to Jurisdictions for Hiring Veterans

Add Feedback

Share |

President Barack Obama, with IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger sitting close by, outlined an aggressive plan to provide more than $1 billion to hire and keep fire fighters on the frontlines, while giving preferences to jurisdictions for hiring veterans after returning from their tours of duty abroad.

Speaking to fire fighters at Station 5 in Arlington, Virginia, President Obama acknowledged that tight municipal budgets have resulted in widespread layoffs of fire fighters and police officers and said his Veterans Job Corps program can boost hiring and help an economy that is struggling to recover. "

Jobs protecting our communities shouldn't be the first on the chopping block," President Obama said. "Let's get more fire fighters on call, and in the process we will put veterans back to work. It's good for the economy."

Prior to the event, President Schaitberger met Vice President Biden, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar about the Veterans Jobs Corps program about how the IAFF's union structure and experience with mentoring and apprenticeship programs would be the perfect fit for a multi-agency partnership to get veterans on the job. Schaitberger was the only labor leader invited to join the president for the February 3 event.

"President Obama has demonstrated an unprecedented commitment to fire fighters and has established a clear distinction between himself and the extremist politicians on the far right – lawmakers like Scott Walker, John Kasich, Rick Scott and their ilk – who are hell-bent on gutting the wages, pensions, benefits, jobs and the rights of those who work for a living, saving lives and protecting our neighborhoods," Schaitberger says.

President Obama's unprecedented jobs proposal would provide $320 million in 2012 funding for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response [SAFER] grants and give a preference for grants to communities recruiting and hiring post-9/11 veterans. The president also announced that law enforcement would receive about half that amount to hire veterans – $166 million for the Community Policing Service [COPS] program in 2012, giving similar preference for veterans.

The president's 2013 budget will also include an additional $1 billion for SAFER grants.

Against a backdrop of fire fighters and military personnel, President Obama praised the hard work that fire fighters do every day to protect their communities. The Veterans Job Corps program will allow former service members to use the skills they learned overseas to work alongside fire fighters and police officers to protect America at home after a career of protecting America abroad, the president said.

Click here to watch the entire press conference.

Republished with permission of the International Association of Fire Fighters. View original article here.



Author:IAFF