{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://toomey.senate.gov?p=news&id=1232", "Ridiculous [press_release]", "2013-12-20", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "PA", "Patrick Toomey", "T000461", "toomey.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Stopping The EPA's Ridiculous Regulation Of Fire Hydrants \n\u00a0Senate Unanimously Approves My Bill To Restore Fire Safety\n\u00a0\nThis week, I teamed up with Sen. Bob Casey to pass bipartisan legislation to bolster fire safety and protect local governments from a ridiculous, expensive, and dangerous new government mandate. \nThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced a policy that would have required local governments to replace malfunctioning fire hydrants with new independently certified lead-free fire hydrants. This EPA regulation essentially made it impossible for local governments to repair fire hydrants or replace them with existing inventory. It was also uncertain whether fire hydrants that meet the new criteria were even available for purchase.\nLast week, Sen. Bob Casey and I introduced legislation (S. 1779) to exempt fire hydrants from the mandate. This week, the Senate unanimously passed House legislation identical to our bill. It was a rare outbreak of common sense on Capitol Hill. \nThe notion that people drink from fire hydrants often enough to warrant this kind of regulation is ridiculous and in no way justifies the cost of replacing hydrants in every city and town in the country. It is great news that the Senate and the House have both acknowledged this absurdity. \nThe implementation of this EPA rule would have forced local governments to leave malfunctioning fire hydrants idle until adequate funds and products are available. This poses an undeniable threat to public safety. The passage of our bipartisan bill is a great victory for common sense, and I look forward to President Obama signing it into law.\n\u00a0\nAddressing The Nation\n\u00a0 \nClick to watch my remarks in the Republican Weekly Address\nI was honored to be asked to deliver last week's Republican Address. In my remarks, I spoke about how the President's flawed health care law is causing millions of Americans to lose the insurance plans they like. \nI also shared the story of a Westmoreland County woman who has multiple sclerosis. She recently learned that, because of Obamacare, she is losing the insurance that had worked for her for many years. She has a choice of two plans now. One will allow her to keep her doctor; the other will pay for her medication. Neither plan will do both. These are the kinds of painful and unfair choices millions of people now face thanks to the President's health care law. \nI empathize with the families frustrated by the faulty website. It took my own family about a week to finally sign up for insurance through the health care exchange available to us.\nPlease take a few minutes to watch and hear about better ways we can still achieve expanded, affordable health coverage. Thanks.\n\u00a0Protecting Our First Responders\n\u00a0\nRead The Delaware County Daily Times article\nThis week, I visited Centre Square Fire Company in Blue Bell, Montgomery County. Rep. Pat Meehan and Senator John Rafferty joined me to share details on my plan to protect volunteer first responders from employee mandates in the President's health care law. \nThe law penalizes volunteer fire departments and jeopardizes funding for training by requiring volunteer firefighters to be counted as full-time equivalent employees. Read more here. \nThe Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that these expenses could \"cost $300,000 for companies with just 50 volunteers.\" This is unacceptable. I will continue to work to protect our first responders from the President's health care law.\n\u00a0\nStill Fighting For Fiscal Sanity\nThe Senate this week passed a budget agreement. I voted against it because any budget deal must be considered in comparison to preexisting law, which was signed by President Obama in 2011 and established specific spending limits. \nThose bipartisan spending caps were working. In 2012 and 2013, we reduced government spending two years in a row - the first time since just after the Korean War - and lowered our deficits substantially.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \nI have maintained that any budget deal alternative to preexisting law must preserve these taxpayer savings. The budget agreement does not accomplish this basic goal. Instead, this deal establishes new, higher budget caps to increase spending. The deal purports to offset those increases. But it does so, in some cases, with gimmicks, and, to a large degree, with higher revenues.\nIt is also unfortunate that this deal does not contain a provision that I have been calling for which would permanently end shutdowns and government by manufactured crisis. \nRegardless of one's position on this budget agreement, it is clear that Washington is still ignoring the unsustainable spending trajectory that remains a drag on our economy and future generations. I hope that Congress will get to work to put our fiscal house in order.\n\u00a0Strengthening Pennsylvania's Communities\n\u00a0\nMy regional manager for the Lehigh Valley, Marta Gabriel, attended the Hillside Healthcare ribbon cutting in East Stroudsburg, Monroe County last Friday. The center is the first residential drug and alcohol rehab center in Monroe County and the surrounding region including Pike and Carbon counties.\n\u00a0 Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!\n\u00a0\nThe Christmas tree at the U.S. Capitol", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://toomey.senate.gov?p=news&id=1232"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5893406234681606, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}