With most fire and emergency services organizations challenged to do more with less, you can't afford not to know what federal funding is available and how to get it.

The major grants for the fire service are pooled under the Department of Homeland Security, of course, but the waterfront of federal funding is much bigger. Currently about 900 federal grant programs award money to state and local governments and non-profit and academic organizations, giving out a total $360 billion each year.

Many departments turn to consultants and writers for help sorting through all the federal red tape and writing grant applications. But if your department doesn't have those resources, there's a new service you should check out: www.grants.gov.

This centralized, federally sponsored Web site is designed to simplify the process of finding, applying for and managing grants across all 26 federal grant-making agencies. Established as part of the E-Gov initiative, the site went fully operational in the fall of 2004, according to Rebecca Spitzgo, director of the program.

Spitzgo suggests two ways fire officials can use the service to find and apply for grants. “They can use the search features to search it online,” Spitzgo says. Under the advanced search, users can put in specific words to search the entire site. “They could put in ‘fire department’ or put in whatever is specific to the type of funding they're looking for and search all grant programs.”

Departments also can sign up to receive e-mail updates to stay on top of grant news and new funding opportunities. “There are different ways to sign up for that subscription service,” Spitzgo says. “They may even want to consider just signing up for all grant notices. They'll get an e-mail once a day, and they can scan through those — there are usually 10, 15 max, posted each day — and see if anything pops out at them. And [in the e-mail] they'll get a … link which takes them right to the grant opportunity, which takes them right to the site where they can view more information.”

According to Spitzgo, the site currently has 1.5 million visitors a week and more than 1 million subscribers to its e-mail bulletins. She says most users of the subscription service say it takes 10 to 15 minutes a day, “and that's if they see something they want to look into further. And if they do see something, they can send it on to someone else. It's already got the links in it. It's just a real easy way for them not to have to remember to search each day and wonder if they missed something.”

“This takes you across all the programs in the federal government…. You don't have to figure out which agency has pots of money. If you do the text search or you just get all announcements, you'll very easily cover the entire waterfront,” says Spitzgo.

If you can't find what you're looking for, the Web site's customer service center provides help by e-mail at support@grants.gov and by telephone at 800-518-4726. The customer support center is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST.

Big-name grants

Of course, most of the federal dollars specifically aimed at fire, EMS and emergency services organizations are distributed by Department of Homeland Security programs. The nonprofit Congressional Fire Services Institute gathered three key DHS grant officials together for an update on federal grants for the fire service last April at a workshop held in conjunction with the annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner in Washington, D.C.

Giving a briefing to about 300 fire chiefs from across the nation were Matt Mayer, acting director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness; Tim Burris, director of preparedness for the Office for Domestic Preparedness; and Brian Cowan, director of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program office. Cowan offered updates on those programs that offer awards directly to fire departments. They're administered by the OSLGCP under the AFG program office.

Most fire departments are now very familiar with the AFG program, popularly known as the FIRE Grants. As the last rounds of FY 2004 grants were given out in the spring, the program had awarded 23,680 FIRE Grants, providing funding for the basic needs of fire departments across the nation. Changes in FY 2005 included raising the caps on the maximum amount of the grant awards to $1 million, lowering the local match requirement and extending the grants to non-fire affiliated EMS organizations. Cowan says a few supplemental 2004 grants will be awarded at the end of the year as administrative costs savings are rolled back into the program.

For FY 2005, AFG has a total of $650 million. The grant application period ended April 8, and Cowan says 20,972 applications are in process. Grant awards were scheduled to begin in June and to continue through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. Funding for FY 2006 is being decided in Congress.

The FIRE Grants have changed the picture for many fire departments. There's always worry that in the future it might go to the states, as most of other terrorism grant programs are. Mayer echoes what most of the leadership at ODP and DHS says: “We do intend to keep it as a direct funding program.”

As for fire prevention and firefighter safety grants, 1,107 have been awarded to local fire departments, as well as state and national organizations, for fire prevention and safety programs. For the first time, the application will be separate from the FIRE Grants, and the target allocation is $32.5 million. In addition, grants now will support research to improve firefighter safety, the cap has been increased to a maximum of $1 million and no local match is required. Look for more detailed program rules, support and an online tutorial in August at www.firegrantsupport.com. The application date is tentatively set for Sept. 6-Oct. 7.

The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response is a new grant program with startup funding of $65 million. The application period was May 31-June 28 for FY 05, but the program is authorized for the next six years to award competitive grants directly to fire departments for hiring firefighters and for incentives for volunteer recruitment and retention.

For hiring firefighters, SAFER provides five-year grants with a maximum federal contribution of $100,000 per firefighter, spread over four years. Each year the federal contribution decreases, starting at 90% of actual cost or $36,000 the first year; 80% of cost or $32,000 in the second year; 50% of cost or $20,000 in the third; 30% of cost or $12,000 in the fourth; and zero federal money in the fifth year.

Departments are required to keep SAFER -hired firefighters in year five. Departments may apply for funding for hiring more than one firefighter; there is no cap for individual grant requests.

For volunteer recruitment and retention activities, SAFER provides four-year grants with no local matching requirement and no cap for individual grant requests. However, Cowan says that the peer-review process will look at the cost-effectiveness of the grant request.Grants for recruitment and retention of volunteers are available to volunteer and combination fire departments and to associations that support volunteer firefighters, including state firefighter associations.

Departments should seek to comply with the staffing sections of either NFPA 1710, Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations and Special Operations to the Public by Career Fire Departments, or NFPA 1720, the volunteer version of the deployment standard. Combination departments can choose either standard.

Cowan emphasized that you can go to www.firegrantsupport.com to find all the latest information on grants for the fire service. “We are trying to create one stop where the fire service can go within ODP to understand what grants they can apply for. Some of you, if not most of you, have already visited that Web site. SAFER applications will be available at that same site. That site will continue to be that one place you go to apply for these grants and to obtain information from them as well.”

State pass-through grants

According to Burris, ODP distributed about $2.5 billion in grants to states in FY 04. Local fire departments, mostly those in urban areas, received about $600 million of that.

In 2004, ODP merged six grant programs into one online grant application: the State Homeland Security Grants, the Urban Area Security Initiative Grants Program, the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Grant Program, Citizen Corps, the Emergency Management Grant Program and the Metropolitan Medical Response System. Of most interest to the fire service are the HSG and UASI grants.

The primary grant source for states, the State Homeland Security Grant Program has $1.1 billion is available in FY 05. States have the flexibility to make allocations to individual fire departments, cities, police departments and others based on their homeland security strategy, which lays out the state's plans for terrorism prevention, response and recovery with specific goals and objectives.

States have to track the money to ensure they achieve their strategy goals with the funding. At present, states receive funding based on a formula in which each state gets a base amount and an additional sum based on population. States are required to distribute 80% of this funding to local jurisdictions. Both houses of Congress are working on bills that would change the formula so that high-risk areas can receive a larger share of these grants.

As for the Urban Area Security Initiative Grant Program, $855 million is available in FY 05. These are grants for the 50 highest-risk areas across the nation, based on five indices in a federal risk formula: threat, presence of critical infrastructure, law enforcement activity, mutual aid, and population and density.

It's important that fire departments in the high-risk regions get involved in the planning process for these grants, say Mayer and Burris. This program encourages regionalization of the funding, and mutual aid agreements should be in the program with counties and cities that surround the high-risk area.

In addition, the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Grant Program has $386 million for FY 05 for planning and training, equipment and exercises, information sharing, critical infrastructure, threat mapping and other activities.

Program problems

DHS is still trying to work out kinks in the state pass-through funding, says Burris, acknowledging two federal reports last year that confirmed what you already know: The funding is too slow to reach the local level.

Burris says two changes this year may help. States are now required to obligate the funds within 60 days of receiving them, and the ODP has been granted an exemption from the Management Act so that funding for Homeland Security Grants can be drawn out of the U.S. Treasury up to 120 days before the actual expenditure. Previously, they were primarily intended to reimburse departments for expenditures, not provide funding up front.

According to Burris, another new advantage is that ODP now has an agreement with the Defense Logistics Agency, which allows first responder organizations to tap into the Federal Prime Vendor or federal procurement system to spend their funding.

As one New Jersey chief says, another problem, particularly in the UASI areas, is that “departments are often being told what kind of equipment to buy, rather than being asked.” Mayer emphasizes that in each UASI area, an interdisciplinary working group has been established to make purchasing decisions with UASI grants, guided by an overall strategy.

In addition, more regional cooperation is required under the new National Preparedness Goal. “One of the requirements of that document was regional collaboration,” says Mayer, “so under that mutual aid agreement, we expect to see a lot more collaborative working done, not just in the UASI [grants], but more broadly around the country, to make sure that folks are working together — not just between jurisdictions but also across disciplines.”

Contact the DHS State Administrative Agency for more information on funding available through your state, or call the ODP Help Line at 800-368-6498 or e-mail askcsid@dhs.gov.

FY 2005 requirements

Grants in FY 05 have three main new requirements, according to Burris:

• States are required to consider improvised explosive devices in their regional planning, prevention and response plans.
• UASI jurisdictions and other areas that a state chooses that don't have a UASI designation need to have interoperable communications systems across the spectrum of responder agencies for an IED incident.
• Departments must comply with National Incident Management System FY 2005 requirements. Looking forward, DHS is pushing for full NIMS compliance by Oct. 1, 2006, the beginning of FY 07.

All federal grant programs are emphasizing compliance with NIMS and its Incident Command System. According to officials at the NIMS Integration Center, as you apply for grants in FY 2006, you will need to self-certify that you have met the minimum NIMS FY 2005 requirements for state, local and tribal organizations. These include:

• Incorporate NIMS into existing training programs and exercises;
• Ensure that federal preparedness funding supports state, local and tribal NIMS implementation;
• Incorporate NIMS into emergency operations plans;
• Promote intrastate mutual aid agreements;
• Coordinate and provide NIMS technical assistance to local entities; and
• Institutionalize the use of the Incident Command System.

The compliance information also spells out certain things state and locals should be doing to support NIMS in FY 05, such as completing an independent-study NIMS Awareness Course (IS 700) and formally recognizing NIMS in state and local proclamations. NIC officials say the NIC won't require these “shoulds” to qualify for federal funding, but your state and local jurisdictions may require them. For more details on NIMS compliance, visit the NIC online at www.fema.gov/nims.

What to expect next year

Appropriations bills for all federal programs will be decided in Congress this summer and fall. In May, the House of Representatives approved the FY 2006 Homeland Security spending bill, with funding for DHS operations and activities.

Although the bill funds DHS at a higher level than FY 05, it proposes reductions for the AFG program ($575 million, $75 million less than in FY 05); and the State Homeland Security Grants ($750 million, $350 million less than FY 05). The SAFER program received a slight increase ($75 million, $10 million more than FY 05), and the UASI program received $1.215 billion compared $1.2 billion in FY 05. The bill has been referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee for consideration. After the Senate committee passes its version of the bill, both versions will be reconciled in committee, then sent back to both houses for final approval.

Although the fire service has come a long way politically in Washington, especially with the establishment of the FIRE Grant program, it can't afford to let up the pressure on Congress, says Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), founder of the Congressional Fire Caucus and vice chair of the House Homeland Security Committee:

“The fire service is now at a level where they understand how to talk to their the members of Congress. Now it needs to get sophisticated and understand who the members are that are specific targets in the areas necessary to increase funding in the appropriations area and the authorization area.”

To take action, learn who the members of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees are at www.appropriations.senate.gov and www.house.gov/appropriations.