By Ken Newton
St. Joseph News-Press
WASHINGTON — Families of first responders have a daily goal, that their loved ones return home safely at the end of each shift.
The line of work being what it is, that doesn’t always happen.
Congress acted Tuesday to afford those families a measure of respect from Washington.
By voice vote, the U.S. House passed the Fallen Heroes Flag Act. The Senate approved the measure last month, and it goes now to President Obama, whose signature will turn the act into law.
The measure provides that a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol be provided to families of police officers, firefighters, rescue and ambulance crew members or other first responders who die in the line of duty.
Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, the co-chairman of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, introduced the legislation, which got a bipartisan group of 24 co-sponsors in that chamber.
A companion bill in the House had been introduced by Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican.
“We can never in any way fully repay the debt we owe them or that we owe their families,” the Missouri Republican said on the Senate floor regarding the legislation.
“These are people who go to work every day, with the greatest goal for their families being that they come home safely that day, and they have more reason to worry about that than most of us have. All we can offer instead is our gratitude.”
In this speech, Blunt mentioned Missouri first responders who died in the line of duty in 2015. He cited, as one, Harrison County Sheriff’s Deputy Brett Hawkins, who died of a heart attack following an emergency response last September.
Nine Missouri first responders died while on the job in 2015.
U.S. Rep. Rich Nugent, a Florida Republican who served 38 years in law enforcement before going to Congress, told his House colleagues Tuesday that he has had to preside over line-of-duty deaths.
“It’s really lifting up all of our first responders,” Nugent said. “This is not a huge thing, but I’ll tell you what: To a grieving family, it is a small token of the appreciation that the United States of America and this Congress … can bestow on a family at their deepest sorrow.”
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