April 11, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 63 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Page S2428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              VOLUNTEER RESPONDER INCENTIVE PROTECTION ACT

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I wish to introduce the Volunteer 
Responder Incentive Protection Act with my friend and colleague from 
Maryland, Senator Cardin, which will benefit the brave women and men 
who volunteer at our local firehouses.
  Across our Nation, volunteer firefighters play a critical role in 
helping to ensure the safety of our communities and the well-being of 
our neighbors. The State of Maine, for example, has approximately 9,785 
firefighters who serve the State's 1.3 million citizens. Maine is 
largely a rural State, and more than 90 percent of firefighters are 
volunteers. Without these public-spirited citizens, many smaller 
communities would be unable to provide firefighting and other emergency 
services at all.
  Often, communities seek to recruit and retain volunteers by offering 
modest benefits. The legislation we are introducing today would support 
these efforts by helping to ensure that these nominal benefits to 
volunteers are not treated as regular employee compensation.
  The Volunteer Responder Incentive Protection Act would allow 
communities to provide volunteer firefighters and Emergency Medical 
Service, or EMS workers, with up to $600 per year of property tax 
reductions or other incentives, without those benefits being subject to 
Federal income tax and withholding. This would ease the administrative 
burden that local departments sometimes face when they reward their 
volunteers.
  We should take care to protect our volunteer firefighters who serve 
this country with such bravery. Our legislation would help us achieve 
that goal, and I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting this bill.

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