Over the past few years, the Congressional Fire Services Institute and several national organizations have supported efforts to get fire service and industry members involved with their Congressional leaders. The success of those efforts recently became evident.

The 19th Annual CFSI National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner and Seminars were held March 28-29. On the first day, DHS released a statement that the 2007 FIRE Grant applications were open. The next morning — the day of the dinner — another press release announced that the application period was temporarily on hold. Though this move was later described as a response to technical difficulty, rumors quickly spread among the seminar participants on the Hill.

One fire chief related that Sen. John McCain, who was participating in the seminar, heard the concerns and called DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff. Shortly thereafter, another press release announced that the application period was, in fact, open.

This action, along with increased Congressional attendance from previous years, shows that Congressional leaders are listening to the fire service. If you happen to be one of the few fire chiefs or officers who still hasn't made contact with your state or federal representatives or their staffers by name, then please do!

In other news from the Hill, as of April 1, the U.S. Fire Administration is back under the leadership of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in accordance with the Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act of 2006.

During this reorganization, Dave Paulison's title has changed from FEMA director to FEMA administrator, “a new title provided under the Act.” However, Paulison reports directly to Chertoff, and in the event of a major disaster, can be called on by the president to serve as a member of the Cabinet.

While in the area, I also visited the National Fire Academy for some more good news. For a few years now, Acting U.S. Fire Administrator Charlie Dickinson has complained that fire chiefs had a right to national information and intelligence that could affect their department and community. Somebody listened, because the USFA recently was designated the lead agency for staffing the newly created Fire Desk at the DHS National Operations Center.

Fire Desk staff will provide subject-matter experts to decision-makers in support of the DHS mission, and they will “act as a vanguard for the fire service” in information-sharing and intelligence information analysis. Fire Desk staff are engaged with the DHS Office of Intelligence & Analysis and will receive both classified and unclassified critical infrastructure protection and threat information. The task of disseminating information from the Fire Desk will fall to the USFA's Emergency Management & Response-Information Sharing & Analysis Center.

Consequently, the senior leadership of every fire and EMS department needs to register for this information at the DisasterHelp Web site, www.disasterhelp.gov/suite. Departments also need to subscribe to the EMR-ISAC system at www.disasterhelp.gov.

One more data source that fire departments must check out is the National Fire Incident Reporting System. National Fire Data Center Director Alex Furr told me that NFIRS has had a significant boost in participation, a direct result of the FIRE Grant Program's requirement that applicants submit incident reports to the system. More than 20,000 fire departments in 49 states and the District of Columbia are currently reporting, but be aware that fire departments using NFIRS 4.1 soon will need to convert to NFIRS 5.0, as 4.1 will expire in 2009.

Sadly, the news isn't all good. According to CFSI Legislative Director Sean Carroll, families that qualified under the provisions of the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program have yet to see payment; in fact, several denial notices have been sent out to survivors.

The praise was quick to come when the Hometown Heroes Act was enacted in 2003 and when the final rule was released by the Department of Justice in August 2006; it's time to come through for those survivors. Why isn't the doj administering the program in a manner consistent with Congressional intent?