SAFER, AFG Funded at Same Level as FY 2010
SAFER and the Assistance to Firefighters (FIRE) programs were funded at the same level as last year -- $810M.
Congress on Thursday approved $405 for each. Last year, SAFER received $420M, while $390M was earmarked for AFG.
New rules for SAFER, however, may spell trouble for many cities, IAFF President Harold Schaitberger told The New York Times.
Previously, grants paid firefighters' full salaries and benefits for two years. Now, however, that's not the case as caps were set on how much can be awarded, he told the paper.
Schaitberger said many cities won't be able to afford to pick up the tab after the grant runs out.
"It is money appropriated in a bill that municipalities will not be able to access," he told The Times, warning that departments would find themselves stretched when responding to their communities. "They're going to be doing it shorthanded, short-staffed."
The SAFER grants have allowed departments across the country to rehire 252 previously laid off firefighters, retain 161 firefighters in danger of losing their jobs and hire 1,253 new firefighters, the paper reported.
The amount of the grants approved last week was $200M more than President Obama's request for FY '11, according to the Congressional Fire Services Institute.
The State Homeland Security Grant Program and the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) were funded at $725M each, a combined reduction of $387M from FY10 and $700M below the Administration's request for FY11, CFSI Executive Director Bill Webb said in a prepared statement.