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President Calls for $1 Billion in SAFER Grants, D-Block for Public Safety as Part of Jobs Proposal

Published Date: 09.27.2011

The White House has proposed draft legislation, The American Jobs Act, which includes $1 billion for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program and allocates 10 MHz of radio spectrum in the 700 MHz band (commonly referred to as the “D-Block”) to public safety along with $7 billion in funding to begin construction of a nationwide broadband communications network.

The SAFER grant program is administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and provides funding to local fire departments to pay for salaries and benefits of career firefighters and to assist volunteer and combination fire departments with recruitment and retention efforts. Under the law, 10 percent of SAFER appropriations are required to go to volunteer recruitment and retention and another 10 percent are set aside for hiring at small combination and volunteer departments. The President’s proposal does not include any funding for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program, another DHS program that helps fire departments purchase equipment, apparatus, and training.

The continued effectiveness and adequate funding of AFG and SAFER is the National Volunteer Fire Council’s (NVFC) top legislative priority. Earlier this year the House of Representatives passed FY 2012 appropriations legislation reducing funding for each program by $70 million to $335 million, respectively. The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a bill that would cut AFG and SAFER by only $30 million each.

The construction of a nationwide broadband communications network for primary use by public safety is also a top legislative priority for the NVFC. Volunteer agencies could potentially utilize a broadband communications network to upgrade intra- and interoperability without having to purchase expensive new equipment.

President Obama announced his proposal, a $447 billion mixture of tax cuts and new federal spending aimed at stimulating the economy, to a joint session of Congress on the evening of September 8 in a speech that was televised nationally. Vice President Biden briefed the leadership of various national fire service organizations, including the NVFC, on the public safety-specific provisions in the plan via a conference call a few hours before the speech took place and hosted a similar call a few days later with a wider group of emergency responders.

During his speech to Congress, the President urged the House and Senate several times to pass the jobs bill “now.” No date has been set for consideration of the bill in either House in Congress, although it is expected that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will bring the Senate version of the bill (S. 1549), which Reid introduced, to the floor sometime after Congress returns from its Rosh Hashanah recess.

The prospects for the House version of the bill (H.R. 12) are less promising. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) has expressed skepticism about the President’s jobs bill, including on September 15 when he said, “The President’s proposals are a poor substitute for the pro-growth policies that are needed to remove barriers to job creation in America – the policies that are needed to put America back to work.”

The NVFC will continue to monitor the progress of S. 1549 and H.R. 12 and inform our members when important votes are scheduled to take place.

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