John,

We have an amazing update to this email!

After months and months of Josh fighting to increase federal firefighter pay - President Biden heard Josh’s calls, and now it’s officially happening!

As you may remember - one of the big issues we have fighting wildfires in California is a shortage of firefighters because their pay is so low. In fact, before Josh took up this fight, they were making less than the California minimum wage.

President Biden heard from Josh and agreed it was unacceptable - and last week announced he was officially increasing federal firefighter pay this year!

It’s a huge win not just for firefighters, but also for making sure our families stay safe. We know this year is going to be one of the worst wildfire seasons, and we have to be prepared.

We also know that this is just the start - next we need to make the pay raise permanent and continue our longer term investments to fight climate change. We can’t let evacuations, orange skies, and smokey air be our new normal.

Thanks for all your support - we’re so proud of Josh for getting this done!
Team Harder
 

----FORWARDED MESSAGE----



Hey John —

Wildfire season is officially here, and right now most of California is classified in “extreme” drought. It’s a huge emergency for our state, so a few months ago I started digging into what I could do to make sure we were ready to fight back.

What I discovered was shocking.

Not only are we not ready for the long term environmental consequences of wildfires, we don’t even have the firefighters we need for this year!

Let me explain. You may have heard of “hotshot” crews, they are the most elite firefighting crews we’ve got. Turns out they are currently understaffed by 30% — and it’s because the federal government barely pays them enough to survive.

I learned that state firefighters in California are paid on average $70,000 a year, but federal firefighters, like these hotshot crews, are only getting $38,000 a year (which is a measly $13.45 an hour). That’s less than our minimum wage in California! Firefighting is some of the most dangerous and important work we’ve got and nobody should be making less than $14 an hour doing it. It’s not hard to imagine how underpaying our firefighters is leading to overworked and understaffed fire departments.

Last year was the worst fire year we’ve ever seen — 4 million acres burned, 10,000 buildings destroyed, dozens of lives lost — we can’t afford that kind of damage right now. And yet, even though experts say this year is going to be even worse than last year, the number of federal firefighters we have has actually dropped.

We’re asking these firefighters to put their lives on the line doing very dangerous and often life-saving work. They should at the very least make a livable wage!

I want you to know that I’m fighting every day to make sure our communities are as safe as possible. We know this fire season is going to be devastating and we can’t be underprepared.

That’s why I’m leading the fight in Congress to pay our firefighters a living wage — because I refuse to let our crews go into the blaze understaffed. We need to be ready.

I’m going to keep digging into this issue, and will make sure to keep you updated on our progress.

Josh


DONATE: [link removed]











This email was sent to [email protected] because CA-10 is one of our nation’s most pivotal tossup districts. But if you’d like to receive fewer emails, we understand. You can click here to get only the most important updates, or you can [link removed] here.

Josh and his wife Pam live in Turlock where Josh grew up and delivered newspapers for the Turlock Journal. Josh was re-elected to Congress on behalf of families in the Central Valley where he’s fighting to hold our government accountable, pass COVID-19 relief, and deliver on our progressive values. Will you help him keep up the fight in Congress by making a contribution today?

[link removed]

Harder for Congress
PO Box 4426
Modesto CA 95352 United States

-----------------------------------------
| Paid For By Harder for Congress |
-----------------------------------------
[link removed]