VPFF – Congressional Quarterly Article on Harold Schaitberger and the IAFF

You guys ask me what the IAFF does for you. You guys ask me where the money goes. You guys ask me who Harold Schaitberger is (The IAFF General President). Here is an article written in the Congressional Quarterly on Mr. Schaitberger and etc. Pay attention.

VPFF Information Network:

Fire Fighters’ Union Chief Wields Political Power To Benefit First-Responders

By Eileen Sullivan, CQ Staff

When American Airlines flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, Harold Schaitberger was not thinking about interoperable communications or how federal disaster response should be structured. When he felt the reverberations of the plane’s impact in his New York Avenue office, he said, “I knew instinctively where our members were.”

As president of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), Schaitberger represents one of the strongest symbols of the 9/11 attacks — the first-responders who put their lives on the line every day. On that particular day, Schaitberger lost 343 of his members.

Under Schaitberger’s leadership, the IAFF has evolved into an effective political force, wielding both power and influence in the post-9/11 world.

The IAFF was among the first to support the concept of creating a Department of Homeland Security. And since 2001, firefighters have received $2.1 billion in federal grant dollars, according to DHS. Schaitberger (pronounced Shate-berger) continues to fight for more first responder funding, interoperable communications systems and for federal funds to be distributed based on risk of a terrorist attack or disaster rather than population. (Read More)