Delaware volunteer firefighters welcome Affordable Care Act fix

Senator Coons shared good news with volunteer firefighters and first responders from across the state on Monday about a fix to the Affordable Care Act that will spare volunteer fire companies undue financial hardship.

After hearing concerns from the Delaware Volunteer Firefighter’s Association, Chris began pressuring the White House in December to clarify that volunteer firefighters would not be considered employees of volunteer fire companies under the Affordable Care Act, potentially triggering the law’s coverage mandate for businesses with more than 50 employees.

Last month, Chris cosponsored legislation to clarify the law and sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urging the administration to explore a fix for this issue independent of Congress. On Friday, Chris received a response from the Treasury Department announcing plans to issue new guidance to ensure volunteer emergency responders will not be counted as employees.

“Volunteer fire companies are an important part of the fabric of our communities,,” Chris said. “While the Affordable Care Act is already doing a lot of good for a lot of people, it isn’t perfect. This issue needed to be fixed so our volunteer fire companies can continue to do their life-saving work.” 

Delaware has more than 60 volunteer fire companies statewide, and most do not have the resources to provide pay or benefits to volunteers. The majority of volunteer first-responders have other full-time employment, and do not expect to receive compensation or health coverage as a result of their volunteer public service.

“Since Republicans’ commitment to repealing the law is making it impossible for us to repair the law, it was important for the President to step in,” Chris said. “I am still hopeful that Congress can come together to fix other issues with the Affordable Care Act that can only be repaired with legislation, but am grateful for the administration's action today.”

Good news for Delaware's volunteer fire companies

Good news! Chris just received this letter from the Treasury Department saying that Delaware's volunteer fire companies will not have to count their volunteer firefighters as "employees" under the Affordable Care Act.

The key section: 

"The forthcoming final regulations generally will not require volunteer hours of bona fide volunteer firefighters and volunteer emergency medical personnel at governmental entitities or tax exempt organizations to be counted when determining an employer's full-time employees or full-time equivalent employees."

More on this issue here.

Standing up for national and community service

Volunteering in service to our communities has been an American value for all of our history. Whenever people are in need, we always come together as communities and as a country to lend a hand. That is why Congress created a number of national service programs in 1993, through bipartisan legislation, under the aegis of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). These programs include AmeriCorps, VISTA, Learn and Serve America, Senior Corps, and others that enable Americans to engage in service to their communities.

Unfortunately, earlier this year House Republicans threatened to defund the CNCS and, with it, remove opportunities for Americans to engage in volunteerism in communities throughout the country.

On Monday, Senator Coons joined Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski and twenty other Democratic senators in sending a letter to the Labor-Health and Human Service – Education Appropriations Subcommittee urging its leadership to support funding for the CNCS in next year’s budget. In the letter, Chris and his colleagues noted that these programs have a “multiplier effect, yielding much more in benefits than we put into it in dollars.”

“We strongly believe that whatever cuts are made to the budget will need to be paired with strategic, long-term investments in economic growth and middle class job creation. AmeriCorps’s contribution to public safety, education, and housing do much to advance this agenda,” the Senators wrote.

Since their creation, these programs have engaged millions of Americans in service. Senior Corps, with half a million volunteers each year, enables older Americans to serve as foster grandparents, to visit other seniors who are homebound, to participate in neighborhood safety patrols, and to work on local environmental preservation projects. Learn and Serve America provides grants to state education agencies, schools, and non-profit organizations to engage students in service activities that connect to academics. AmeriCorps provides opportunities to over 85,000 Americans each year to work full-time in service to their communities in a range of ways. VISTA, one well-known AmeriCorps program, helps over 7,000 Americans each year work full time at non-profits or local government agencies to help fight poverty, teach reading skills, combat homelessness, expand employment opportunities, and improve public health.

Chris co-founded one of the first AmeriCorps-supported programs in Delaware in the early 1990s, which helped mentor students participating in the “I Have a Dream” Foundation’s college-attainment program. As New Castle County Executive in 2005, Chris helped create the New Castle County Emergency Services Corps (ESC), a partnership between AmeriCorps, county government, the Volunteer Firefighters’ Association, and the YMCA Resource Center of Delaware. The ESC was created to recruit more people into the county’s volunteer fire companies, but its members also provide a host of important benefits to the community, including CPR and First Aid training and other outreach activities to promote safety. Over the past six years, ESC members have provided over 108,000 hours of service to their communities and saved County taxpayers money that would otherwise have been spent on providing these services directly.

The Emergency Services Corps is just one of so many examples of community service programs supported by AmeriCorps. All over Delaware and across America, communities are being strengthened by the hands of volunteers from AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and other CNCS programs.

To learn more about how you can volunteer in your community, visit www.nationalservice.gov.