STEVE AUSTIN

The Book of Ecclesiastics reminds us that there is a time for everything. The Fire Grant Program is no exception. It is time to visit the USFA web site and get all the support provided and begin the process. If your department is considering a Fire Grant request for this year, this is the time to prepare your request. The window is open until 5pm on March 31, 2002.

The US Fire Administration (USFA) has extended hours at their help desks. It is time to call these folks with questions specific to your grant application. Do not hesitate to contact USFA. They are there to help you make your application as correct and complete as possible.

There is a time to call Congress and a time not to call. This is not the time to call your member of Congress to provide a letter to support your grant application. The fire service demanded and got a peer review program staffed by fellow fire service members to evaluate grants based on need. We didn't want a bureaucrats or government contractors to do the actual evaluations and we got our wish. Please don't ask your member of Congress to offer a letter of support. Put yourself in the place of fellow fire service member who is evaluating scores of grant applications. Would a letter from a Member of Congress saying the grant is a good idea influence you? Probably not. There are few Members with firsthand technical knowledge about the fire service. Don't waste a Member's time by asking for a letter that can't, under the rules, help the process.

However this is the time to make a personal contact with your member of Congress about the future of the Fire Grant Program. Your member of Congress is extremely important in providing support for the program in future years. Congress will be coming home for a Spring Break after March 22nd. Now is the time to call your Member of Congress and Senator's office near you to ask for a meeting when members are at home. This "district work period" as it is called is designed for Congress to get in touch with constituents. America's fire service has become a very important interest group. Most if not members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are eager to meet with firefighters.

It is time to deliver a clear and concise message. The communication: Maintain a separate and fully funded Fire Grant Program. Members should be urged to not combine the Fire Grant Program with the new Homeland Defense Funding as they prepare the new Federal Budget that becomes effective on October 1, 2002. National fire service groups are busy educating Congress and the Administration in Washington on this very issue. But nothing has more impact on Congress than hearing a consistent message at home from the people who cast ballots. It is time to schedule a meeting. You don't need to be an expert. Simply ask that the Fire Grant Program be continued and funded at $1 Billion per year and that it not be combined with any other program no matter how worthy that program might be.

For every season there is a time. This is fire service's time to reap the benefits from the Fire Grant Program and sow the seeds for next year's harvest.