The first round of Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) awards have been announced. It includes 860 awards worth approximately $90 million.
Announcements are planned for every Friday through the end of the year at approximately 6 a.m. There are approximately 5,000 grants worth $485-490 million to be awarded.
2006 AFG Grants Recipients, Round 1
2006 Grants Recipients by State
The AFG is a competitive program administered by the DHS Office of Grants and Training that awards one-year grants directly to fire departments nationwide in an effort to give every department the basic tools needed to respond to all hazards.
The AFG application solicitation period closed in April, and peer reviewers from various fire service organizations evaluated and ranked the 18,160 applications several weeks later.
According to the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), normally the first round of award announcements are made in mid to late summer. This year the award criteria, which by law must be published before awards can be made, did not appear in the Federal Register until September.
Because the award announcements are starting later than normal this year, DHS will be making more announcements each week in an effort to finish the award-making process in a similar time frame as in years past.
Grants can also be viewed at the Homeland Security Grant Program Web site.
