PFFPNC launches quarterly magazine
PFFPNC is excited to announce the inaugural issue of The Firefighter, a quarterly magazine procuded by PFFPNC in collaboration with the IAFF and the government relations/communication team at New Frame.
Click here to read the first edition of The Firefighter.
Within The Firefighter, readers will find compelling content, new trends in the fire service and thought-provoking topics and inspiration. The Firefighter will share stories about the fire service, including real life stories of firefighters and their families, political news, recipes, trainings and products.
“If you have ideas – from recipes to interesting stories – please send them our way,” says PFFPNC President Tom Brewer. “This is our magazine and we promise to keep it authentic, real and relevant to you and your families.”
Brewer said the goal of each edition is to illicit excitement in every quarterly issue and to shape the magazine based on feedback from readers.
“I would like to take a moment to thank PFFPNC Political Director Josh Smith, the PFFPNC Executive Board, The Firefighter editor Jonathan Griswold, contributor Jennifer Menster and New Frame’s Brian Lewis for their hard work to launch this magazine,” Brewer said. “As you open your first inaugural issue of The Firefighter, it is our sincere hope that you are inspired and enjoy this publication created just for you.”
Oral Cavity & Pharynx Cancer in Final Budget
The House and Senate released a compromise budget on Tuesday and included in the $24 billion spending plan is the funding of oral cavity cancer and cancer of the pharynx as a line of duty death benefit. 
The House and Senate passed the budget with bipartisan support on Thursday in a final vote in each chamber. Governor Roy Cooper announced Friday morning in a press conference he is vetoing the budget, which means the General Assembly will either have to attract enough Democrats to overturn the first-term governor’s veto or the General Assembly will need to negotiate with the governor on his objections. (Gov. Cooper wants to expand Medicaid.)
The two cancers were included in the House version of the budget passed on May 3 and in the Senate version of the budget on May 31. The question was whether the provision would stay in the budget as the two chambers came together over the last month to work out a final budget that reconciled the two chambers’ significant differences. The provision did stay in the final budget.
Adding oral cavity and pharynx cancer brings the number of cancers funded to six, including mesothelioma, testicular, cancer of the small intestine and esophageal.
“PFFPNC is very proud to see these line-items in the budget,” said PFFPNC Political Director Josh Smith. “We started working on including cancer as a line of duty death benefit in 2016, and it’s humbling to see the General Assembly working down the list of cancers killing our brothers and sisters.”
The four cancers not yet funded by the line of duty benefit are rectal cancer, brain cancer, Non-Hodkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma.
“PFFPNC appreciates the work of the General Government appropriation chairs – House Chairman Dennis Riddell, House Chairman George Cleveland, Senate Chairman Rick Horner and Senate Chairman John Alexander – for their work on these provisions,” said Smith.
PFFPNC will continue to monitor the budget and will report on Governor Cooper’s actions on the PFFPNC Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as in the weekly e-newsletter.
Senate agrees with House on LODD cancers
The Senate announced its version of the $25 billion state budget on Tuesday and it included a $235,000 Line of Duty Death benefit expansion of oral cavity and pharynx cancers, the exact line-item proposed by the House in its budget on May 1.
While the House and Senate agree on the LODD line-item, there are sizable differences between the two chambers on the rest of the spending plan and those differences will be negotiated over the next month as the July 1 fiscal year approaches. PFFPNC’s focus is to make sure this agreement sticks in the final spending plan.
If the agreement between the chambers stays intact, the number of cancers covered by the Line of Duty Death benefit will grow to six of nine fire fighter cancers. In addition to oral cavity and pharnyx cancer proposed in this year’s House and Senate budget proposal, the Line of Duty Death benefit already includes mesothelioma, testicular cancer and cancer of the small intestine (added in 2016); and esophageal (added in 2017). In 20018, PFFPNC took the opportunity to double the LODD from $50,000 per death to $100,000 per death, but added no new cancers.
“This is the first time the Senate has ever proposed expanding the Line of Duty Death benefit in its initial budget proposal,” said PFFPNC Political Director Josh Smith. “We are so grateful to the chairs in both the Senate and House for proposing these expansions and for coming to an agreement so early in the process.”
PFFPNC President Tom Brewer added, “These LODD benefits will help families recover at a time when many families are devastated not only by an illness that takes a loved one, but also an illness that leaves them in financial ruin.”