While the overall budget for the Department of Homeland Security will swell again in fiscal year 2006, the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program and the U.S. Fire Administration are heading for cuts once again.

The Senate passed its FY 2006 Homeland Security Appropriations bill in July, with an overall increase of $1.4 billion over the total enacted in FY 2005 for a total of $30.8 billion to fund the department's operations and activities. The House passed its DHS appropriations bill in May, with a total of $30.85 billion.

A committee of members from both houses are reconciling the amounts proposed in the two bills and are expected to send its final conference report to the floor of both houses for final approval in this month.

Under the Senate bill, the FIRE Grant Program received a sharp $100 million cut to $550 million. The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Response Program received an increase, from $65 million to $115 million. The House version offers a higher appropriation for the FIRE Grants ($575 million), but less for SAFER ($75 million).

The International Association of Fire Chiefs is asking its members to encourage the conference committee to approve the $575 million for FIRE Grants and $115 million for SAFER, for a total pot of direct grants to fire departments of $690. But even at those levels, the overall number will be less than the total of $715 million appropriated to these programs this year.

“It's never going to be an easy task to get the full funding for both the FIRE Grants and SAFER, given the budget deficit, the war in Iraq and other economic challenges,” said Bill Webb, executive director of the Congressional Fire Services Institute. “We're just going to have a big challenge to maintain or increase funding for these programs….”

Though the government has put close to $3 billion into the FIRE Act, Webb said fire service leaders need to be actively explaining why they need more funding in the SAFER program to bring staffing in fire departments to recommended safety levels and why that money should not be deducted from the FIRE Grants.

The U.S. Fire Administration budget, which has slipped down every year since DHS was established (from $67.3 million in 2002 to an estimated $55.9 in 2005), received a line-item appropriation of $52.6 million under a Senate provision. In the past, the USFA budget was lumped into the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate. The IAFC supports the line-item provision in the Senate bill. While some say it will mean less flexibility in moving funding around to meet needs, it will make USFA funding easier to track.

The fire service benefits from other DHS programs, principally those administrated by the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness. The Senate bill contains $1.5 billion in state and local assistance grants, $50 million for technology transfer and $1.9 billion for emergency management performance grants. Under the Science and Technology directorate, $15 million is proposed to support interoperable communications, and under Emergency Preparedness and Response, the Senate has $34 million for the National Disaster Medical System and $30 million for Urban Search and Rescue Teams.

All told, according to Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), fire departments are getting about $4 billion a year from federal coffers.

“We've come a long way,” said Weldon. “We've just got to continue the battle to continue to increase the funding levels. Out of almost 32,000 fire departments, almost 20,000 have gotten [FIRE] Grants so far.… We're making progress, but there's room to do more.”

Weldon suggested that every fire department in America establish a “political officer” whose responsibility would be to establish a proactive relationship with elected officials at the local, state and federal level. “We have a safety officer in the fire department; we have a desk officer; we need a political officer,” Weldon said. “And that political officer doesn't mean a Republican or a Democrat. It means they have to get the support of all elected officials to work for the support of the first responder.”

If all fire departments had a political officer, Weldon said, “that's 32,000 people across the country who would be promoting fire and EMS issues at the local, state and federal level. I would challenge every fire department, every rescue service in the country, to have at least one political officer whose job it is to tell the story of the fire service, get the elected officials to involve themselves with the fire service, to establish an agenda of the priorities and to get to know the staffers of the members of Congress who work fire and EMS issues.”