Page 20 - Volume 20

The Big Picture
By Ken LaSala
Director of Government Relations International Association of Fire Chiefs
The good news is that Congress is making progress on the FIRE and SAFER reauthorization and other fire service related bills.
We’re now more than halfway u Newlanguageallowingtheuseof
through 2017, and Congress has
a lot to do. Just in September, President Trump and Congress had to reach an agreement on raising the debt limit and passing legislation to fund
the federal government in Fiscal Year (FY) 2018, which started on October
1. Also, the fire and emergency services needs Congress to pass legislation
to reauthorize the funding for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG, popularly known as the “FIRE grant” program) and the SAFER grant program to prevent the programs from being terminated in January. The good news is that Congress is making progress on the FIRE and SAFER reauthorization and other fire service related bills.
The AFG-SAFER
Reauthorization Bill
On August 2, the U.S. Senate
passed the AFG and SAFER Program Reauthorization Act of 2017. This bill was endorsed by the IAFC, and has the following provisions:
u Elimination of the January 2, 2018 sunset provision
u Extension of the authorization of both programs through FY 2023
u Cleanup of the SAFER statute, including consistently authorizing a hardship waiver of the 25%-25%- 65% matching requirement
u Transfer from the SAFER statute to the AFG statute of recently added language educating emergency medi- cal personnel to recognize and treat people with mental illness
SAFER grant funds to upgrade paid- per-call or part-time firefighters to full-time career firefighters
u Creation of an online training program to help grant recipients administer their AFG and SAFER grants
u Establishment of better oversight and grant monitoring systems to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse
S. 829 was referred to the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. The committee held a hear- ing on July 12, and Chief John Sinclair, the IAFC’s President and Chairman of the Board, testified at the hearing in favor of S. 829. He also testified about the importance of reauthorizing funding for the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA). The current authorization of funds expires on October 1, but Congress
can still fund the agency. The House will have to consider legislation to reauthorize the AFG and SAFER grant programs this fall, along with legislation to reauthorize USFA.
Appropriations
Congress has started to get to work on the annual appropriations bills. On July 21, the House Appropriations Committee reported its FY 2018 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Act (H.R. 3355). The legislation is notable because it pro- tects funding for DHS’s grant programs. The following chart shows the funding situation for DHS’s fire programs:
20 InCommand OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 • www.ohiofirechiefs.org