Congress passes spending bill, fire grants untouched

The money available for fire grants will remain the same in 2013 as it was in 2012

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives passed the FY2013 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 933) Thursday. This legislation, which passed the Senate on Wednesday, will fund the federal government through Sept. 30, 2013. Overall, the bill allocates $984 billion for federal non-emergency discretionary funding, which is a decline from $1.043 trillion in FY 2012.

The legislation contains both the enacted 5 percent sequester of nondefense discretionary spending and an additional rescission for selected agencies.

In the past, 5 percent of the SAFER and AFG money was used for salaries and administrative costs. With those being cut, the actual grant award amount in FY2013 will remain about the same as it was for FY2012. The sequestration will cut about $2 million from USFA funding.

“In light of the overall environment, which is focused on reducing the federal deficit, fire and emergency service programs fared pretty well,” said Chief Hank Clemmensen, IAFC president and chairman of the board. “By working together to demonstrate the value of these programs, we were able to avert devastating cuts.”

This bill will allocate the following amounts for the following fire service programs:

U.S. Fire Administration: $41.96 million
FIRE grant program: $320.31 million
SAFER grant program: $320.31 million
Urban Search and Rescue: $33.39 million
State Homeland Security Grant Program: $328.95 million
Urban Areas Security Initiative: $474.90 million
U.S. Department of Interior, Wildland Fire Management: $688.5 million
U.S. Forest Service, Wildland Fire Management: $1.846 billion
The bill continues the existing waivers to the requirements of the SAFER grant program. In addition, the bill will charge the 5% to administer DHS grant programs (including the FIRE and SAFER grant programs) to the FEMA Salaries and Expenses account, which will help offset the sequester for the grant programs.

The bill is being sent to President Obama, who is expected to sign it.