Whether it was President Bush's wars and plummeting popularity, a nose-diving economy, Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as running mate, Sen. Barack Obama's organization and charisma, or some combination of these and other factors, American voters selected Democrat Obama as the next president. And although Democrats fell short of winning a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, they did gain seats in both that body and in the House of Representatives.

Democrats gained seven Senate seats in the November election, giving them a 58 to the Republicans' 41; the race in Minnesota was being contested at press time, and Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman is an Independent but typically votes with Democrats. The House will get 21 more Democrats when it convenes next year, giving that party a 256-to-175 advantage. In the presidential race, Obama won 365 electoral votes compared with McCain's 173; the popular vote, for what it's worth, went 66.8 million for Obama and 58.3 million for McCain (53% to 46%).

It was an historic election punctuated by Americans taking to the streets on election night for peaceful, jubilant celebration. But that honeymoon atmosphere is bound to be short-lived given the economy's dire straits. So far, the Treasury Department has failed in its attempts to apply a tourniquet to stem the job losses, foreclosures and market skittishness — which likely will cut deep into local revenue used to pay for such things as fire protection. (For more on the economy and its impact on the fire service, read “Size Up” with noted economist Mark McMullen on page 88.)

Given all of this, what can the fire service expect from these new leaders? Some issues, such as local fiscal problems and federal grants, will be directly tied to the nation's economic troubles. Others, such as reauthorizing the Assistance to Firefighters Grant program, which expires in 2010, and what to do with the Federal Emergency Management Agency are largely outside concerns about the economy. Some of its issues appear easier to solve than others, and this too is not always directly tied to the economy. Regardless of their stripes, experts engaged in national-level fire-service issues agree that funding for SAFER and AFG programs will be a critical battle in the coming years.

“We've had good bipartisan support for the fire service grants that have been established over the last 10 years, so I'm not expecting a big change,” says Larry Grorud, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and chief of the Janesville (Wis.) Fire Department. He says that changes that do occur will be more likely due to the recession than to the change in leadership in Washington, D.C.

“As we are in a brand new economic environment, the strains on the federal government are going to become a lot more intense,” says Barry Kasinitz, the International Association of Fire Fighters' director of governmental affairs. “There will be some challenges trying to keep the funding levels for the grant programs robust. Beyond the numbers, we do think the new administration will be taking a good look at some of the formulas, some of the ways existing programs have been run in the past, and looking for ways to try to improve them.”

Bill Webb, executive director with the Congressional Fire Services Institute, agrees that the history of bipartisan support bodes well for grant prospects. However, he too is cautious given the vastly changed economic landscape.

“Congress is going to have to make some tough decisions affecting a lot agencies and federal programs,” Webb says. “It is tough to say now what decisions they make will impact our programs. If we can preserve this year's funding levels, that would be considered a success. Of our legislative priorities, first and foremost will be reauthorization of the FIRE Act and SAFER.”

Webb says getting the grants funded should not be as large a battle as will be the amount to which they are funded. Philip Stittleburg, chairman of the National Volunteer Fire Council, says grant funding is that organization's top priority, too. However, he sees the new administration as more favorably disposed to the fire service than was the Bush administration. Stittleburg spent 25 years as chief of the LaFarge (Wis.) Fire Department and is one of FIRE CHIEF's legal columnists.

“The Bush administration routinely reduced AFG and zero-funded SAFER,” Stittleburg says. “It looks like Obama was fairly supportive of AFG and SAFER money when he was in the Senate. And you have Joe Biden, who was co-chair of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus in the mix now, too. That strikes me as two people who may be favorably disposed to these two programs.”

Many agree that having Biden as the next vice president is good for the fire service, but how good remains unclear. For example, will Vice President Biden bring a have different priorities for federal spending than did Sen. Biden?

“That is the $64 question,” Stittleburg says. “At the very least, with Biden, we have someone in the White House that knows the history of this bill. It is reasonable to expect that we will get more favorable treatment than we have from the Bush administration.”

Stittleburg also is optimistic that Obama's intended nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, will understand the value to elected officials of bringing home grant money to local fire departments.

Webb agrees that it will be good to have Biden in the administration, but says CFSI focuses much of its efforts on building relationships with lower-level, yet influential staff members.

“We didn't always get what we wanted from President Bush, but at least we had people in that administration who were always willing to listen to us,” Webb says. “Vice President-elect Biden is a very strong supporter of the fire service, but we won't be able to call him directly whenever we have an issue. We need to focus on how the positions in the departments are filled and how can we reach out to them and establish these working relationships.”

But as long-time House Speaker Tip O'Neill famously said, “All politics is local.” And that's where the fire service will feel the immediate impact of our faltering economy. It hardly seems a day goes by anymore without news stories of cities or towns laying off fire staff, taking companies out of service, closing stations, or postponing equipment purchases and hires. A recent story from St. Joseph, Mich., told of that town saving money by laying off its fire chief and shifting his responsibilities to the police chief.

“We are seeing throughout the nation significant cut backs in fire protection budgets,” Kasinitz says. “We are optimistic that the new administration and the new Congress fully understand the importance of making sure that states and localities have adequate resources. This is one of the key differences we will see between the new administration and the old. The old administration, we think, did not put enough emphasis on states and localities. Still to this day, President Bush is expressing strong opposition to including aid to states in a stimulus package. President-elect Obama has indicated that it will be a priority of his that we need to get federal funds to states and localities. The Congressional leadership also seems to be embracing the idea of providing resources to states and localities.”

“President-elect Obama just spoke to the National Governor's Association and encouraged them to do more in creating programs and do more in becoming the place where new initiatives start and his place is to provide some of the funding to help nurture programs generated at the state level,” Webb says. “The states and local governments are hit hard. They are coming to Washington and asking for more support. Everyone is lining up looking for aid from Washington, D.C. It seems like right now, the Treasury can't print the money fast enough.”

Money problems aside, one of the more hotly debated issues promises to be what to do with FEMA; specifically, should it remain under the Department of Homeland Security umbrella or return to being its own cabinet-level agency. The International Association of Emergency Managers has come down on the side of pulling FEMA out of DHS, saying that FEMA would be more nimble and focused on its own and that its mission of responding to natural disasters is not in line with DHS's mission of preventing terrorism. IAEM has enlisted former FEMA Director James Lee Witt to rally for this move. The National Emergency Management Association remains neutral on the issue.

For its part, the fire service is taking the opposite approach and calling on Obama to leave FEMA where it is. They say the agency is not broken, so don't fix it.

“We've been down that road before,” says Webb. “We prevailed in keeping FEMA in DHS and we have our work cut out for us in 2009, because there is a movement afoot to make FEMA a separate agency. It is going to be a tough one. James Lee Witt is one of the advocates … and he does have President-elect Obama's ear.”

Webb says the current structure provides the money, personnel and resources that FEMA needs to be effective. If it were removed from DHS, those resources may dry up. Likewise, IAFC and IAFF favor keeping FEMA where it is. NVFC is taking a neutral stand on the issue despite coming out in support of keeping it in DHS in 2006. Stittleburg is concerned about what a shift could mean.

“What concerns me is another reorganization,” Stittleburg says. “Since its inception, because DHS is such a massive agency and it took in so many different groups, it has been in an almost on-going state of reorganization.”

Proponents of leaving FEMA in DHS say that the agency has been improved greatly since Hurricane Katrina and David Paulison moved up from head of the U.S. Fire Administration to run FEMA when Michael Brown left the post.

The fire-service officials also say their wish lists include putting those with fire-service experience in charge of FEMA and USFA. They point to the success of Paulison at FEMA and Gregory Cade at U.S. Fire Administration, both former fire chiefs, as reason for this request.

“We saw a turnaround in FEMA when we got away from people who were just personal friends of the president to people who were professional emergency managers,” Kasinitz says. “In the past, FEMA has been sometimes viewed as a political dumping ground, a place where favors were paid. We don't expect that will happen [with Obama].”

Given such broad industry support and that Obama asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to stay on in the new administration, will Cade or Paulison be asked to stay? Most say this is very unlikely and have not heard any rumors to that end. IAFF and IAFC are proposing names for Cade's and Paulison's replacements; NVFC still is preparing its list and CFSI will leave the list submitting to its partner organizations.

Prior to the election, some fire chiefs in states without collective bargaining said they feared an administration and Congress controlled by Democrats would pave the way for collective bargaining. Not surprisingly, this is one of IAFF's key issues.

“There are a number of things we anticipate will move forward in those areas,” Kasinitz says. “Most notably, that every firefighter has the right to form a union and bargain with their employer. Sen. Obama was a co-sponsor of our legislation, and we are very hopeful that we'll be able to move that forward in the new Congress.”

Grorud says the IAFC is taking a neutral position on it and Webb says that CFSI board of directors supported a collective bargaining bill about six years ago and remains behind it.

A new administration also raises questions about how the Public Safety Officers' Benefits program will be handled. The number of denials and the delay in having cases heard by the Department of Justice became so bad in 2007 that during a Senate hearing, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) gave then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez a stern dressing down and ordered him to fix the program. Since then, the program has been running much smoother and most believe it will continue to do so.

“Right now it is on the back burner,” Webb says of PSOB. “But we thought it was on the back burner one time before and DOJ pulled a fast one on us. We are never going to turn our backs on the issue.”

The IAFC plans to direct its attention toward improving interoperability and sprinkler use, Grorud says. “The IAFC is working on a grant right now to develop intrastate mutual aid in all states,” he says. “That eventually will expand into interstate cooperation between the two.” The group also will push Congress to move the Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act forward, he says. If passed, it would allow those installing sprinklers to realize the full tax incentive in five years rather than 40 years.

The volunteers will be looking to Congress to pass a bill that protects jobs of volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel called to assist during a disaster, as declared by the president. NVFC also is hoping Obama keeps the Citizens Corps in tact. Stittleburg says that it may be in trouble if Obama views it as being too much of a Bush program.

One thing Webb hopes is not lost in the turmoil and uncertainty is that there are many new members in Congress; he urges those in the fire service to meet their newly elected representatives.

“The fire service needs to understand that getting legislation approved in Congress is no easy task,” Webb says. “The fire service can help the associations by working with their members and helping them understand what the issues are. The fire service needs to make sure that the programs that are out there are having a positive impact. We need to start seeing more reduction in the number of deaths and injuries in the fire service. We need to make sure that every dollar awarded to the fire service is properly used and we can point to positive results.”