The meeting held in the halls of Congress asked USFA and Department of Homeland Security staff to discuss what IAFC saw as a drastic funding shortfall and perhaps collapse of influence of the federal department so critical in leadership and training nationwide.
During the Capitol Hill gathering attendees listened to presentations from IAFC President Chief Bob DiPoli, USFA Administrator David R. Paulison, and representatives from the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, and the U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee Subcommittee on Research.
Paulison presented what he felt were the realities of the FY06 proposed budget and its impact on the USFA and NFA in contrast to the concerns expressed by the IAFC, that funding was increasingly being reduced at an un-manageable rate.
After a brief overview of the organization, Paulison presented the USFA's funding history from 2002 to 2005 using the actual budget numbers for each of the USFA and EMI programs.
Thomas Olshanski, fire programs specialist with the USFA said, "What you see from these numbers is that the budgeting has remained relatively consistent. The national data center has taken some hits, but otherwise funding has remained steady. There have been some reductions, but the message has remained clear that the reductions are manageable. We've taken advantage of other opportunities in DHS and behind the scenes with FEMA, and while the program dollars have gone down, the budget numbers have stayed relatively the same."
Paulison also discussed budget trends and talked candidly with attendees about their FY06 budget concerns.
Central to Paulison's presentation was his focus on the need to clear up a number of "misperceptions" regarding the proposed budget, that have been circulating around the U.S. fire community of late. These included rumors such as the NFA being close to closing and the National Emergency Training Center (NETC) being increasingly disregarded.
In actual fact, Paulison said, "the proposed USFA budget for FY06 reflects an increase of $1.3 million over FY05 and also includes continuing responsibility and additional funding from the NIC for NIMS/NRP training." Also, "$400,000 in projects are underway at NETC in FY05 to maintain roofs, roads, and sidewalks and to paint buildings."
Paulison also dealt with other misperceptions such as:
