Firehouse.Com News
President Bush today signed the Supplemental Appropriations Bill,
legislation that includes an additional $150 million in federal funding for
FEMA's Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, often referred to as the
FIRE Act. The House of Representatives passed the bill July 23 and the
Senate on July 24 and sent it to the White House for a signature.
If the $150 million becomes available immediately, it would raise the amount
of money available for this second round of the FIRE Act Grant program to
$510 million from the $360 million the program is now planning to disburse
by December 31.
This means that as many as 2,000 additional grant applications could receive
funding according to Marko Bourne, USFA Executive Assistant for
Communications. It is expected the money currently available will fund about
5,500 grants.
Of the money available, $150 million must be awarded by September 30, 2002
because it was appropriated in a FY2002 budget. An additional $210 million
was appropriated this spring in a FY2003 budget and the latest $150 million is also a FY2003 budget appropriation, available through
September 30, 2003.
The FEMA Grant Program Office has always said it will award all available
funds by the end of 2002. "Our goal all along is all the money we have for
this program this year will go out the door by the end of the calendar year
and we will are going to continue to hold ourselves to that goal," Bourne
said.
The entire piece of legislation authorizes $28.9 billion in emergency funds
for the Pentagon, U.S. homeland security efforts and New York's recovery
from the Sept. 11 attacks.
