TOPICS
TOPICS
Bill would streamline first responder grant programs
Federal agencies that provide grants to first responders in state and local governments would be required to streamline their application processes for federal aid under legislation sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Collins' bill, S. 1245, would move two key first responder grant programs into the Office of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, and create an interagency committee to standardize the paperwork required by various federal grant programs. The committee would eliminate redundancies among first responder grant programs, which are spread across several agencies. While the Office of Domestic Preparedness is the lead Homeland Security agency for dispensing aid, states also receive grants from the Health and Human Services Department for bioterrorism preparedness. The Environmental Protection Agency offers grants to secure water treatment facilities.
"There are some distinct differences, but the HHS grant programs and ODP grant programs do overlap," said a staffer on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. "Basically what our bill seeks to do is better coordinate [the programs] in terms of administration and planning."
The committee would include representatives from all the agencies that dispense first responder grants. It would have 150 days to come up with recommendations for streamlining first responder grants across federal agencies. These requirements should help the committee avoid the fate of the National Domestic Preparedness Office, an FBI office that unsuccessfully tried to streamline first responder programs in the late 1990s, according to the staffer.
"The language that we put in the bill gives some very clear direction on what the committee needs to do," he said.
The bill also moves the Office of Domestic Preparedness out of the Border and Transportation Security Directorate and into the Office for State and Local Government Coordination within Ridge's office. Ridge said at a May 1 Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing that the Bush administration supports this move.
The Office for State and Local Government Coordination also would assume administration of the FIRE grants program, which would move out of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under Collins' bill. The FIRE program would continue to award grants directly to fire departments, a top priority of associations representing firefighters.
"Your explicit language should ease any remaining doubts as to whether the FIRE Act will be run in exactly the same manner as FEMA," wrote Harold Shaitberger, president of the International Association of Firefighters, in a June 9 letter to Collins.
Collins' bill also has support from the National Governors Association, National Association of Counties, Council of State Governments and National Conference of State Legislatures, according to letters provided by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
The legislation builds on three other homeland security bills introduced this spring by Collins, the chairwoman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee: S. 796, S. 838, and S. 1073.
COMMENTS
- In May of this year I had the privilege of serving as a peer evaluator for the FEMA administered 2003 Grants to Firefighters Program under the FIRE Act of 2001. This program provides grants directly to fire departments with matching funds based on population. Over 19,000 applications were received and evaluated using the peer evaluation process for $750 million (2003)funding available for these grants. Other than transportation and lodging at the National Fire Academy all the evaluators were volunteers! 100% of the available funding is dispersed directly to the individual fire departments for improving or replacing Firefighter Safety and Operations Equipment, Fire Apparatus, Health and Wellness Programs for Firefighters, Fire Prevention, and Fire Department Emergency Medical Operations. This Bill S.1245 would move this program to the proposed Office for State and Local Government Coordination and as stated in the article that "your explicit language should ease any remaining doubts as to whether the FIRE Act will be run in exactly the same as FEMA," by Harold Shaitberger, President of the International Association of Firefighters, I DO NOT see the same assurances for the nations volunteer fire service, which make up 75% of the national firefighting force. In your article on June 13, 2003 "Ten states to get funds for first responders", it states that "The Homeland Security Department since March 1, has released more than $4.4 billion in grants to state and local governments and private sector organizations to enhance terrorism prepardness. Little, if any of these funds have found their way directly to the end user fire departments themselves! The FIRE Act program as administrated by FEMA, as a part of the Homeland Security Department have already named the first wave of recipients of grants for 2003, directly to these fire departments and will continue to name recipients each week until all funds are dispersed. I would venture to say that no other program in government works like the FIRE Act, and its volunteer peer evaluators. I will urge my congressional delegation to oppose any attempt to remove FEMA from the administration of a program that works! While S.1245 may have had good intentions it is flawed in including the FIRE ACT, and I certainly hope we don't attempt to fix a program that is not broken! Richard E. Bordner Posted June 24, 2003 10:43 AM
