Texas Fire World
March-April 2005

The General Accountability Office (GAO) will soon begin a study on career firefighters’ right to volunteer when they are off duty.

Representative from Congress requested the study in November of 2004 to focus on the circumstances in which career firefighters are restricted from volunteering for other fire departments during their off-duty hours.

Officials hope the study will reveal how limitations on volunteering may be affecting the ability of fire departments to carry out their responsibilities.

The GAO plans to:

- Develop an estimate of the number of career firefighters who volunteer during off-duty hours.

- Examine the extent and origin of any restriction on volunteering, including an estimate of the number of fire departments and firefighters affected by such policies as well as reasons such policies were put in place.

- Examine staffing levels at volunteer and combination fire departments in areas where fire departments prohibit or discourage career firefighters from volunteering in another jurisdiction during off-duty hours.

The NVFC is working to give all American Firefighters the right to volunteer in their communities without impediment from other government organizations. A recent House bill reauthorized the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program. It stipulated that firefighters hired under the grant program could not be prohibited from volunteering in another jurisdiction in off duty hours. However the stipulation was dropped when the bill went to the Conference with the Senate version.