Lois Murphy Addresses First Responder Concerns

In the Sixth Congressional District race progressive candidate Lois Murphy continues to address the real concerns of the people. While Jim Gerlach cozies up to Tom DeLay, Karl Rove and George W. Bush Lois is talking about jobs, health care and security concerns.

From the Murphy campaign:

"My priority is to keep Pennsylvania's families safe, and central to doing
this is ensuring that our first responders are equipped to effectively
respond to an emergency," Murphy said. "This administration and Congress
have repeatedly cut funding that undermines the ability of our emergency
personnel to quickly respond to a natural disaster or attack, and my
opponent, Jim Gerlach, has been with them every step of the way. I will
work to ensure that the 6th district is prepared to handle any emergency and
ensure that our first responders have the resources they need to keep us
safe."

Lois believes that first responders are some of the most crucial players in
the event of an emergency. Efficient response requires rapid and effective
communication as well as state-of-the-art equipment, and must be a priority
in the budget. Yet this administration and Republican-led Congress have
continued to cut funding for homeland security and for our first responders.
The federal government recently designated $49 million in homeland security
funds for Pennsylvania-a cut of more than $32 million or 40 percent from
last year. The Philadelphia area alone lost $3 million in funding, a 14
percent loss.

As a member of Congress, Lois will:

* Fight to restore the levels of funding that the region and the state
need to adequately respond to an emergency.
* Work to increase Pennsylvania's communications capabilities so that
local, state, and federal officials can coordinate response and share vital
information.
* Support testing of emergency and evacuation plans to ensure that
they can be executed in the event of an emergency.

Jim Gerlach has a history of voting to cut funding for homeland security and
first responders. In 2005, Gerlach voted against improving first responder
communications, opposing a proposal to provide $5 billion over 5 years to
achieve 100% communications interoperability that would have provided a
direct source of funding for first responders to purchase and upgrade
communications equipment. Gerlach also voted for final passage of the
Homeland Security Appropriation bill, despite the fact that this legislation
provided 8% less funding for firefighter grant programs, $60 million less
than the year before.