By FireRescue1 Staff
Legislation that would reauthorize AFG and SAFER and make several changes to the programs was introduced into the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
H.R. 3791, the Fire Grants Reauthorization Act of 2009, would extend the programs for five years. The provisions in H.R. 3791 are based on a series of policy recommendations that were agreed by several national fire service organizations.
The changes to AFG include:
- Guarantees 25 percent of AFG funds each to career, combination, and volunteer fire departments, respectively. Under current law, volunteer departments are guaranteed a percentage of the funds at least equal to the percentage of the population that they protect nationally (19.8 percent) and there are no guarantees for career or combination departments. The national fire service organizations are recommending that departments already recognized by the grants office as "paid on-call/stipend" departments should be considered combination departments for the purpose of applying for AFG.
- Increases from five to ten percent the funds set aside for the Fire Prevention and Safety Grant program and eliminates the matching requirement for fire departments through FP&S. The bill would also increase the maximum award amount through FP&S from $1 million to $1.5 million.
- Makes volunteer non-fire service-based EMS and rescue agencies eligible to receive up to two percent of AFG funds.
- Makes state fire training agencies eligible to receive up to three percent of AFG funds.
- Leaves 10 percent of AFG funds open for competition between career, combination, and volunteer fire departments.
- Reduces the matching requirement for fire departments protecting populations of 50,000 or greater from 20 percent to ten percent. Departments protecting populations of 20,000-49,999 will continue to have a ten percent match, and departments protecting populations of 19,999 or less will continue to have a five percent match.
- Allows the Grants Preparedness Directorate to waive the matching requirement for fire departments that can demonstrate financial hardship.
- Establishes new maximum award amounts:
- $9 million for jurisdictions serving a population of 2.5 million or more.
- $6 million for jurisdictions serving a population of between 1 million and 2.5 million.
- $3 million for jurisdictions serving a population of between 500,000 and 1 million.
- $2 million for jurisdictions serving a population of between 100,000 and 500,000.
- Jurisdictions serving a population of 100,000 or less will continue to have a grant cap of $1 million.
- Allows for the creation of "Centers of Excellence," which would be joint research projects between a national fire service organization and a university that would focus on firefighter health and life safety.
- Allows departments to purchase EMS training through AFG in addition to firefighter training.
- Codifies the current practice of prioritizing AFG awards based on a department’s call volume and population protected.
- Requires that training purchased using AFG funds adhere to national voluntary consensus standards, if they are applicable.
- Authorizes a new fire service needs assessment study.
Changes to SAFER include:
- Makes national organizations eligible to apply for SAFER recruitment and retention funds.
- Reduces the length of SAFER hiring grants from four to three years.
- Reduces the matching requirement for SAFER hiring grants to 20 percent each year. Under current law, the local match is low in the first year and increases in each successive year.
- Eliminates the $100,000 cap per-firefighter hired using SAFER funds.
- Allows the Grants Preparedness Directorate to waive the matching requirement for fire departments that can demonstrate financial hardship.
The Technology and Innovation Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee reported H.R. 3791 favorably to the full committee, which is expected to hold a markup on the bill sometime next week, according to the NVFC.
Earlier in the summer, Jack Carriger, the NVFC's First Vice Chair and Oregon State Director, testified before the House Science and Technology Committee regarding AFG and SAFER reauthorization.
In his testimony, he stressed the importance of reauthorizing AFG and SAFER, eliminating the match for fire departments through FP&S, allowing state training agencies to be eligible to apply for AFG, allowing national organizations to be eligible to apply for SAFER recruitment and retention grants, and the continuing need to assess the impact of AFG and SAFER grants.
Congressman Harry Mitchell (D-AZ), along with 40 original co-sponsors, introduced H.R. 3791.
