Rep. Kelly Supports Protecting Firefighters & Veterans from Obamacare
WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) – a member of the House Ways and Means Committee – spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives this evening in support of H.R. 3979, the Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act of 2014, of which he is a co-sponsor. The legislation would ensure that emergency service volunteers are not counted when determining full-time employees of a given employer for purposes of the employer mandate under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Also this evening, Rep. Kelly voted to support H.R. 3474, the Hire More Heroes Act of 2013, which would incentivize small businesses to hire veterans by exempting those who already receive health insurance through the Department of Veterans Affairs or reservists covered under TRICARE from the employer mandate provision in a similar way. H.R. 3979 was passed by the House by a unanimous bipartisan vote of 410-0. H.R. 3474 was passed by a bipartisan vote of 406-1.
Highlights from Rep. Kelly’s floor speech on H.R. 3979:
“Ninety percent of the 1,800 Fire Departments in Pennsylvania are all volunteer. These are men and women from the community that just come forward to serve. … [Previous Treasury action on this issue] is ‘Treasury guidance,’ and so by no means has it been codified [into law]. We make certain – in a time when there is so much uncertainty – that these folks will be protected and not be looked at in a way that doesn’t make sense to them.”
“I was at an installation of officers back in my hometown of Butler. Ed Kirkwood, the manager of Butler Township, when asked about what could possibly happen [to firefighters under Obamacare, stated]: ‘The township has over 130 volunteer firefighters serving the community. By my calculations, if this is not fixed, the township could go bankrupt. It would require a tax increase of 13.56 mills, or an increase of over 2.5 times the current rate to comply.’ Basically, if this is not fixed, Butler Township either doubles its taxes or loses their Volunteer Fire Departments. Chief Mike Cadman out of Jamestown, when asked about this, said, ‘That would be political suicide.’ I would venture that it’s worse than political suicide — it is putting our citizens at risk when we don’t have to.”
“At a time when … the public looks at us and says, ‘You guys don’t get along on anything!’ — this is something where I think we’ve come together to say, ‘Let’s just do something that makes sense.’ …This is just commonsense legislation out of this body that makes sense for all those volunteers that spend countless hours and time serving the needs of our communities all over the country.”
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