Forums: Post Grant & Fire Act Comments/Questions
PART II: AUGUST 6TH - The Turndown Notifications
Fire departments often contact USFA with similar questions about their application and the process of issuing decisions for their grant requests. In an effort to be responsive to fire departments, and at the same time reduce the resulting staff time needed to respond to inquiries, the USFA is releasing this list of the frequently asked questions. Since USFA staff cannot provide specific information on each of these application decisions, these questions and answers are presented as generic information.
USFA staff will begin the process this week of issuing grant decisions that turndown fire department requests by notifying 7500 fire departments of their grant request decline. It is hoped that these questions and answers will provide an explanation of this element of the grant process.
1. Why didn't we receive funding for our request?
We don't have enough funding to support every request in FY2002. We received over 19,500 applications for a total of $2.2 billion in needs. Since we have $360 million to award, not every applicant can get an award. With $360 million, we estimate that we will be able to fund between 5,000 and 5,500 applicants.
USFA staff cannot provide specific information regarding an application or the evaluator’s decisions for rating the applications. There were over 19,500 applications that went through multiple layers of review, as such, we are not able to respond to specific requests for information on any one application. As you know from our program guidance, each of the eligible activities had funding priorities associated with it, and in most cases, a department’s application probably did not match up as well with those funding priorities as other departments did.
2. Since President Bush has signed the supplemental funding approval, will there be a
chance for our award to be considered in the FY02 Fire Act?
No. If President Bush takes action to make additional emergency funds available to the grant program, the USFA staff has already identified those additional applications that would be reviewed.
3. Why did it take so long to find out about the turndown of our grant application?
It was important to expend as much staff time as needed to perform a thorough review of all the applications evaluated by the independent technical panels and address any concerns raised during paneling. Each application was given careful consideration so that we could be certain about application decisions. Also, since an additional $150 million had been proposed under an emergency supplemental appropriation, the parameters of the awarded range of grant requests have been difficult to determine.
4. What questions are graded and how did we do on them?
Departmental characteristics do not have scores associated with them. All fire department responses to the activity-specific questions of the four program areas do have value and affect the application’s score. Scoring is protected information and we are unable to discuss how particular departments scored on any given question. However, the areas where applicants have scored low is where the proposed program/activity did not match well with the grant program’s funding priorities, which are reflected in the program guidance.
5. Can I see my application?
Yes, your application is available to you on-line. However, scoring information is protected information by law, and cannot be released to anyone.
6. What was the process for scoring my application?
This is a competitive grant process where the applications are scored electronically during the first phase of review using the priorities established by the legislative process and the national fire service organizations. The second phase includes a peer review process. We brought in fire service professionals from across the United States to serve as panelists to apply a final score to the applications.
7. What could I have done better?
You may have presented a good case for funding. However, due to funding limitations we will need to turn down as many as 14,000 applications. Generally, unsuccessful applicants did not submit requests based on the priorities established by the legislative process. Without exception, fire departments’ applications should be for those activities that are the department’s top priorities. But, it is important for applicants to understand that the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program’s priorities may be different from their own. We encourage every department to review and become familiar with the Program Guidance, which lays out the top funding priorities of the grant program. The department can then determine which of its own priorities best fit those immediate needs of their community or fire department and those program-funding priorities.
8. Why are some departments receiving money for a second year in a row? Isn't priority given to departments who did not receive any money last year?
All departments are eligible to apply for the grants each year, regardless of whether they received a grant in the past. In fact, there are several reasons not to exclude last year’s grantees from this year’s program:
- Each year is an open competition and we want to fund the applications that best address the program’s priorities.
- We made significant changes to this year’s program. Last year an applicant could apply for only one category at a time, which was very limiting. Receiving an award last year did not mean that the applicant fulfilled all its needs in that area. This year we greatly expanded the activities available under one application making it much easier for an applicant to more completely improve its operations.
- Some departments aren't able to financially meet the match for all their operational needs in one year, so this policy allows these departments to apply incrementally in order to address their operational needs over multiple years.
PART 1: AUGUST 1ST - General Grant Questions
Firehouse.com recently asked the U.S. Fire Administration to respond to some of the comments, questions and statements made by Firehouse.com Forum users.
Thomas H. Olshanski, EFO, United States Fire Administration was kind enough to respond to the questions and below are his responses.
Firehouse.com: How many departments are expected to be awarded?
Olshanski: We estimate that with $335M available for award that we will make 5,500 grants. If President Bush approves the emergency supplemental funding of $150 million, we are currently anticipating around 7000 awards. These are only rough estimates at this time. Each round of announcements will differ in number from the previous rounds.
FEMA MUST give out the first $150 million before September 30th, which we are currently on pace to accomplish.
FEMA also negotiates with some departments to improve their funding procurement process, freeing up more money for other departments, where appropriate. Also an important part of the process.
Firehouse.com: How are Departments being notified?
Olshanski: To date, there are probably 2,000 awards in some form of process, either formally approved or recommended for approval. That does not mean that 2,000 departments have yet been contacted.
The first contact that a Department gets would likely come from your Congressional member or Governor. The department would only be contacted by FEMA first for file management and clarification purposes. It does not directly relate to being awarded a grant specifically necessarily.
After that notification, those departments will receive an Official Award Notification letter from FEMA's Procurement Officer, which it send out on the 1st and 15th of every month.
Firehouse.com: Is there a date on when the 'Dear John' letters will be distributed?
Olshanski: We plan on commencing our first "batch" of these turndown notifications mid-week of August 5. As more decisions about award are made, we will have more certainty about those applications that we cannot fund. Therefore we will continue to issue turndown decisions in batches, likely until the final award announcements. We estimate that the issuance of all application decisions will take us through December 2002
Firehouse.com: For those who haven't been contacted, does the link to the 1199a in their grant online form have any bearing on their situation?
Olshanski: The "link" to the 1199a is to allow the FEMA staff to complete information in the applicant's file. In and of itself, it has no meaning with respect to an award.
Firehouse.com: For the departments in limbo who have been notified to complete a questionaire or fill out the 1199, is there a routine amont of time from that point the grant would be announced?
Olshanski: There is no routine, standard or regular amount of time from FEMA's receipt of the data to the issuance of an application decision. There is a tremendous amount of work internally to award the grants. There are also congressional notification and public affairs considerations once the award has been signed by the Procurement Officer.
If the first two rounds are any indication, the process has had variable time elements for each award, but once signed by the Procurement Officer, the award moves very rapidly to notification (almost immediately).
However, how can I describe to you the amount of work that must go into the financial and legal issues of these awards. It is a tremendous workload.
It is important that I point out two goals that Director Paulison has placed on all of the staff. The first goal is to issue the $150 million one year money before September 30, 2002. At the current pace, we are well ahead of this goal. The second is to have all awards completed and distributed by the end of the year. We are currently on pace to achieve this goal as well.
Olshanski: Further Comments
FEMA calls no one to notify of a non-funded request. It would appear that departments are reporting receiving phone calls regarding their requests and being told of the decline. To date, we have called no department. Nor will we.
Administrator Paulison and staff are keenly aware of the serious issues surrounding these requested awards. Chief Paulison has assembled a personal letter to each department not receiving funding. We at no time past, present or future will ever call a department by phone to decline an award.
Whether you receive funding, or not, there is an incrediably high quality, highly professional treatment of each and every funding request. All 19,500 of them.
This process will undergo review throughout the year and following. There are lessons learned and we are committed to making this easier for Departments. Hopefully even more money will be available next year.
