I’m happy to announce that the President has signed my bill into law to support Missouri Task Force 1! My legislation, the National Urban Search and Rescue Parity Act (H.R. 639), which passed the House in April and the Senate in July, establishes clear policy allowing federal employees to serve on FEMA Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Task Forces.
In 2016, Congress passed the National Urban Search and Rescue Response System Act, which provides non-federal employees various federal liability protections due to their participation on US&R teams. FEMA interpreted this law to mean that federal employees are prohibited from serving on these task forces. My bill addresses this misinterpretation so all dedicated volunteers can be deployed.
Boone County Fire Protection District Fire Chief Scott Olsen, the Chief and Program Manager for Missouri Task Force 1 (MO-TF1), noted:
“The passage of H.R. 639 was very important to MO-TF1 and the other twenty-seven FEMA US&R Task Forces in the National Urban Search and Rescue Response System. It will allow 4 of our own team members who are federal employees and approximately 50 other additional federal employees who are members of the other 27 teams to deploy to future federal disasters.”
“MO-TF1 would like to thank Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler for introducing H.R. 639 and leading the fight to fix the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Response System statute which will now allow federal employees to again respond to federal disasters as members of a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force,” Olsen added.
This was a team effort and I am grateful for Senator Blunt and Hawley’s assistance in moving this bill through the Senate. The President’s support last week has now completed the process so this commonsense bill can become law.
Yours in service,
Vicky Hartzler
Member of Congress
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