Washington, D.C. – On July 10th, the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved the H.R. 2555, the Fiscal Year 2004 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. The $28.5 billion bill is $1 billion less than the version the House passed in late June. The House bill contains funding for biodefense countermeasures requested in the Bush Administration’s budget proposal.
The Senate Committee approved $750 million for the Assistance to Firefighters (FIRE Act) Grant program in FY04. This is the same amount the program is currently funded at and the same amount the House approved for FY04. Unlike the House version of the legislation, the Senate bill moves the FIRE Act out of the USFA and into the Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP). The Senate Committee did advise the program should be administered the same way, stating the FIRE Act “is a well regarded and effective program. The Committee supports the continuation of the peer review process, and making grants directly to fire departments. The Committee believes that this should remain a separate grant program within the Department of Homeland Security, and not be combined with any other grant program (Senate Rpt.108-086).”
Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) introduced an amendment, which was voted down on July 22 to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill. This amendment would have provided an additional $729.5 million for the fire service. The additional money would be for:
- $150 million to fully fund the FIRE Act at $900 million
- $250 million to high threat and high population density urban areas
- $250 million for Office of Domestic Preparedness formula grants; these are the grants made to states based upon a population formula.
- $79.5 million for interoperable communications equipment
The House Appropriations Committee recommended in its report on the bill that the FIRE Act remain within the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate (EPR). The Directorate is the new home of the FEMA and USFA. In explaining their reasoning in the report, the Committee stated they recommended keeping the FIRE Grant program in EPR “so there is no doubt to its importance and to protect this program from being lost in the first responder grant programs” (House Report 108-169; page 49).”
