TSAFF appreciates Office of the Governor Greg Abbott's commitment to providing state funding where fire service professionals can deploy it best. While the state Forest Service helps fund volunteer departments, professional departments are staffed and ready to go. Funding state-dedicated vehicles in professional departments would enhance response times for large incidents requiring statewide support. It also would provide much-needed apparatus that a city would staff and maintain. That’s why a grant administered by the Governor’s office makes sense. For example, fire departments along the border are at a breaking point. The Governor’s Office currently administers a grant program that provides equipment and other support for which professional departments can apply. Bringing this appropriation in line with the size of the task also could help these departments meet state security needs and still provide service to the citizens they protect. We also emphasize that professional firefighters suffer from cancer at much higher rates than the general public due to the absorption of cancer-causing chemicals that they are exposed to on the job. Providing a grant to the University of Texas Health Science Center to study firefighter-related cancers and help develop better policies will save lives and save countless tax dollars. We look forward to continuing to work with the Governor and his staff to better the lives of professional firefighters.