Congress passed a fiscal year 2005 Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill with funding for several critical programs for the fire service just before recessing for the November elections, including $650 million for the FY 2005 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program. In a Department of Defense authorization bill, it also reauthorized the FIRE Grants program for FY 2005 to FY 2009 and made several substantial changes while keeping intact the overall structure of the program.

The $650 million appropriation for next year is a $100 million cut from the $750 million appropriated for FIRE Grants in FY 2003 and FY 2004.

Though “quite disappointed” by the cut in the FIRE Grants given his belief that many fire departments have basic needs for equipment that continue to be unmet, Chief Bob DiPoli, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, said it was not surprising.

“I realize that the nation is at war and facing a defense budget in the hundreds of billions of dollars, along with billions of dollars in aid to hurricane-ravaged Florida,” DiPoli said. “When this nation is on a better financial footing, the IAFC will press Congress very hard to restore full funding to the FIRE Act.”

But DiPoli said he was pleased with the language in the bill that restored wellness and fitness grants and fire prevention grants, lowered matching funds, and showed a continued DHS commitment to keep the program intact as a peer-review process.

Most of the changes in the reauthorization legislation followed recommendations sent to Congress in February in a unified position paper developed by the Congressional Fire Services Institute with the participation of 10 major fire service organizations, including the IAFC. Congress did make one change over the strong objections of the IAFC pertaining to EMS groups eligible for the grants next year.

Principal changes to the FIRE Grants program include:

Reduced local match

The local community match will be reduced from 30% to 20% for jurisdictions with populations larger than 50,000; to 10% for jurisdictions with populations from 20,000 to 50,000; and to 5% for jurisdictions with populations less than 20,000.

Increased maximum award amount

Previously, grant awards were capped at $750,000. New rules increase caps to $1 million for jurisdictions with populations less than 500,000, $1.75 million for jurisdictions of 500,000 to 1 million, and $2.75 million for large urban areas with more than 1 million. An overall cap provision limits the size of any grant to no more than one half of 1% of the total appropriation for that year, which would cap any grant at $3.25 million in 2005.

Funding for research and development

Projects to conduct research to improve firefighter health and life safety will qualify for noncompetitive grants.

Fire service participation

Fire service participation is required in annual meetings to develop criteria for administration of the program and the peer-review process for granting awards.

FEMA administration

The director of the DHS Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate will act through the U.S. fire administrator to administer the program. In the previous two years, the Office for Domestic Preparedness, which has a focus on terrorism preparedness, administered the program. The IAFC strongly supported this decision because it protects the “all-hazards” focus of the FIRE Grants.

Expanded eligibility for EMS

Any “public or private nonprofit emergency medical services organization that is not affiliated with a hospital and does not serve a geographic area in which … emergency medical services are adequately provided by a fire department” will be eligible for the grants. Congress imposed a ceiling of 2% on the total amount of funding that can go to this category. The IAFC strongly opposed this decision, saying it was concerned it would be “the first step toward a dramatic expansion of eligible organizations that will ultimately erode the focus and success of the program.”

The DHS appropriations bill also included $21 million for development and implementation of interoperable communication systems, $180 million for emergency management planning grants, $30 million for urban search-and-rescue teams and a first-time appropriation of $65 million for the SAFER Act.