Additional Resources | Congress / Budget
Capitol Hill: Congress to DHS: Explain delay in fire emergency aid
By Louis Chunovic, Senior Editor
Published December 3rd, 2007
Bennie Thompson
(D-MS)
In an angry letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) demanded answers about why Canadian firefighters and ambulances were recently delayed in response to emergency situations. The border delays occurred despite longstanding mutual aid agreements between fire departments and hospitals on both sides of the border. Thompson and other top Democratic committee members, including Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), asked Chertoff to clarify the
status of protocols governing treatment of emergency response vehicles and personnel in border communities.
Grassfire, a grassroots political action group, called on Congress to force DHS to specify what funding will be spent on the double layer fencing now being built on the nation’s southern border as part of the execution of the
Secure Fence Act, and to strip away discretionary power over the construction of that fence. The proposal is in response to rising anger in many border communities, where residents fear the fence now being constructed will disrupt both agriculture and commerce.
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