Q    Mr. President, I am a proud firefighter for the great city of Columbus here in Ohio.  (Applause.)  Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT:  Joe, did you use to play for Ohio State, man?

Q  I must correct you.  I was actually part of the National Championship team for Eastern Kentucky University.

THE PRESIDENT:  Oh, okay, all right.

Q    For the national champion, no less（仍然，不相上下） .  (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, there you go, okay.  But you look like you could -- we could put you on the line right now.

Q    Oh, that's what they all say.  (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Anyway.

Q    But, Mr. President, I wanted to talk to you about a couple of things as it pertains to（关于，从属于） the safety and security of our firefighters.  I want to share with you some good news as it pertains to the stimulus and the SAFER Act for which you championed and signed off on.

Locally and from the state standpoint（立场，观点） , we had some firefighter jobs that were in jeopardy（危险） , up in the hundreds.  The stimulus package -- I know the state was strapped with its commitment and what it had to with those monies.  Some of those areas we weren’t able to be supported in.  But because of your administration signing off on the SAFER Act, which is staffing adequate fire and emergency response, you provided over $300 million last year and upped that to over $400 million this year  -- that had allowed for the jobs in Ohio to come back -- the firefighters rather who had jobs to come back and get their jobs back.

In addition to that, the fire act has provided safer equipment for us.  We -- don't want to sound cliché（陈词滥调，老生常谈） , but I’m just your average Joe.  But what we do as firefighters, we want to make a significant difference to our citizens here in our community, as well as our lives.  That SAFER Act and that fire act has provided us significant equipment -- money, funding rather for significant equipment -- face pieces, self-contained breathing apparatus（呼吸机） , things of those nature.  So we come to say how proud we are to be able to afford that opportunity to secure our firefighters.

The international president has sent a appreciative（感激的，常识的） thank you and we would hope that you would find -- I know your busy schedule -- somewhere around this country -- Cincinnati, Akron, Elyria, Niles -- have brought back firefighters because of the SAFER Act.  And if anywhere along your schedule you have the opportunity, as a symbolic gesture of support, to stop in to those stations, thank those firefighters, we would greatly appreciate that.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you.  And as I said, you guys put your lives on the line each and every day.  We wanted to make sure that public safety was not being threatened as a consequence of the recession.  We’ve done that.  We’ve helped to support not just firefighters but also police officers, teachers, other vital services.  We’re going to continue to support you.  And again, we’re very grateful for everything you do.

And if this is your lovely wife here, we’re grateful to her too because she’s got to -- she’s got to put up with you -- (laughter) -- running off into fires and putting yourself in danger.  And I’m sure that makes her a little bit stressed once in a while, but I’m sure she’s very proud of you.

Q    Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT:  Okay.

Anybody else?  Yes, go ahead.  Here, we’ve got a microphone.