By Ed Holohan
Penflex, Inc.
Representative Peter King (R-NY) has reintroduced the Volunteer Emergency Services Recruitment and Retention Act in the House of Representatives. The VESSRA Act (previously H.R. 1792/S.3319) has been languishing in Congress for more than five years and is intended to fix far-reaching federal law compliance problems with Length of Service Award Programs (LOSAPs). LOSAP programs provide a modest financial incentive to help recruit and retain volunteer firefighters and are currently utilized in 33 states.
Deemed by the National Volunteer Fire Council as legislation that is crucial to recruitment and retention efforts nationwide, the VESSRA Act has received increased attention the past few months due to the 2010 National Fire Department Profile compiled by the National Fire Protection Association.
The report shows a clear aging trend in the nation’s volunteer firefighters combined with the smallest amount of volunteers under the age of 30 since 1987.
King, the 2011 Congressional Fire Service Institutes Legislator of the Year, reintroduced the bill with nine co-sponsors and the NVFC now lists VESSRA as number three on its list of the 10 most important pieces of legislation affecting volunteer firefighters.
“We can and should do more as a nation to encourage people to volunteer for their communities as emergency responders,” said NVFC Director of
Government Relations Dave Finger. “H.R. 376 clarifies the tax treatment of LOSAPs making it easier for communities to use LOSAP programs to bolster recruitment and retention. Especially with the difficult budget situation facing Congress at the moment, this type of legislation, which doesn’t reduce taxes or create new federal spending, is really low-hanging fruit.”
Passage of this legislation would clarify the federal tax treatment of LOSAPs by:
- Allowing plan sponsors the option to protect funds contributed to a LOSAP. This protects the funds from creditors in case the sponsoring entity, usually a local government, goes bankrupt and allows for portability of benefits earned by a volunteer.
- Increasing the federal cap on annual contributions into a LOSAP from $3,000 to $5,500 and establishing a mechanism whereby that cap can increase over time depending on inflation. The current cap was established in 1996 and has never been raised.
- Allowing private, non-profit volunteer emergency services agencies that operate based on the terms of a written agreement with a local unit of government to elect to have their LOSAPs be considered “governmental” for the purposes of taxation. This would exempt non-governmental LOSAP sponsors from various reporting requirements that are an administrative burden.
According to the NVFC, estimates of the amount volunteer firefighters save taxpayers approach $40 billion annually so it’s clear the recruitment and retention of these volunteers is crucial to communities all across the United States.
Since 1983, the volume of reported calls responded to by volunteers has more than doubled while communities have seen their volunteer forces age without an adequate supply of new members to replenish the ranks as they cease being active volunteers.
Without this incentive and absent other viable solutions to plummeting enrollment numbers and again volunteer forces, local governments may soon be faced with the daunting expense of hiring paid firefighters and emergency services personnel. The cost to taxpayers of establishing paid departments far exceeds what would be needed to establish a LOSAP program that would assist in retaining and recruiting members.
More than 73 percent of all U.S. fire departments are volunteer fire departments. Helping them continue to recruit and retain firefighters is of vital importance. How many communities, in this economy, can afford to start an all-paid force? In some states paid firefighters are being laid-off because the local governments are already facing massive deficits.
What’s of great concern with any reduction in forces, volunteer or career, is public safety. People concerned with declining enrollment numbers and aging volunteer forces need to call their representatives in Congress and urge them to pass H.R. 376 today.