House Passes FY 2015 Homeland Security Funding Bill
January 16, 2015
On January 14 the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 240, the FY 2015 Homeland Security Appropriations Act. The bill includes $340 million each for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) and Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) programs, as well as $44 million for the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA). These funding levels are consistent with what the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) requested in March 2014, when Congress first started working on FY 2015 appropriations.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the only federal agency that has not been provided with full-year funding for FY 2015. In December, Congress passed full-year appropriations for other federal agencies but only extended DHS’ funding authority through the end of February. This was done to give the newly-elected Congress an opportunity to insert language into the DHS appropriations bill preventing President Obama from carrying out an immigration-related Executive Order that he issued in November.
