On December 20, President Bush signed H.R. 2764, legislation making appropriations for all federal agencies except the Department of Defense for FY 2008. Included in the bill was funding for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) and Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant programs. AFG received a $13 million increase to $560 million while SAFER was funded at $190 million, an increase of more than 65 percent.
AFG and SAFER provide funding directly to fire departments and nonprofit EMS agencies for apparatus, equipment, training, staffing, and recruitment and retention of volunteers. Fire service representatives work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that the most deserving grant applications are funded..
H.R. 2764 provides the United States Fire Administration (USFA) with $43.3 million, an increase of approximately $2 million. USFA offers training and education for emergency services personnel and the public. USFA also performs research and collects data specific to the fire service and fire service activities. The long-term health of USFA and its National Fire Academy are critical to the fire service.
Citizen Corps received flat funding at $15 million. Citizen Corps grants help fund programs such as Fire Corps, Medical Reserve Corps, Neighborhood Watch, Volunteers In Police Service, and Community Emergency Response Teams. Fire Corps, which is administered on a national level by the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) in partnership with the International Association of Fire Chiefs, promotes the use of citizen volunteers to enhance the capacity of fire and rescue departments by performing non-emergency functions.
Between the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service, Congress provided more than $3 billion in funding for wildland fire management. The Volunteer Fire Assistance (VFA) program received $14 million, the same amount as last year, while the Rural Fire Assistance (RFA) was funded at $6 million. RFA was unfunded in FY 2007. RFA and VFA provide grants to fire departments in rural areas to prepare for responding to wildland fires.
