Leadership Quote by Bobby Scott

Calling a volunteer fire department “not Federal” is less a civics lesson than a pointed warning about mission creep. Bobby Scott’s line works because it’s blunt to the point of sounding obvious, then quickly reveals itself as a boundary marker: local public safety is the classic example politicians reach for when they want to argue that Washington’s reach has outgrown its mandate. By choosing volunteer fire departments, Scott lands on an institution that’s practically synonymous with small-town self-reliance, neighbor-to-neighbor obligation, and nonpartisan competence. You don’t “debate” a fire.

The specific intent is to push back against federal involvement that might come through funding strings, compliance regimes, or one-size-fits-all standards. In legislative fights, fire services often show up as sympathetic collateral: if federal policy burdens them, it’s easy to frame the policy as detached from real life. The subtext isn’t anti-government so much as pro-jurisdiction: a plea for subsidiarity wrapped in a populist image. Scott is saying, in effect, if even this gets nationalized, what’s left that communities truly control?

Contextually, the remark resonates with recurring American arguments over federalism, especially in eras when homeland security, emergency management grants, OSHA-style regulations, or unfunded mandates are in the air. It also quietly flatters local civic identity: the people who show up with trucks and hoses do it because the town is theirs. The line’s power is its moral shorthand - it makes federal overreach feel not merely inefficient, but vaguely indecent.