The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved a $28.5 billion fiscal 2004 Homeland Security Appropriations bill (H.R. 2555) by a vote of 9_to-1 on July 22.

The bill provides $750 million for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant program, which is the same amount that was appropriated in FY 2003 and $250 million more than the $500 million President George W. Bush requested in his budget.

Unlike the House version passed on June 24, the Senate bill moves the Assistance to Firefighters Grant program out of the U.S. Fire Administration and into the Office of Domestic Preparedness, located in the Border and Transportation Security Directorate of the Department of Justice.

The Senate report advised that the program should be administered the same way, calling it a “a well-regarded and effective program” and recommended the continuing of the peer review process and making grants directly available to fire departments. The report also stated that the program “should remain a separate grant program within the Department of Homeland Security, and not be combined with any other grant program.”

The House bill's report language stated that the program remain in the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security in a separate appropriation, “so there is no doubt as to its importance, and to protect this program from being lost in the first responders grant programs.”

A conference of House and Senate Appropriators will meet after the August Congressional recess to work out differences in the bill before sending it to both houses for approval.