NVFC Expresses Concerns over Proposed Changes to Non-fire Homeland Security Grant Programs
March 26, 2012
The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) has been working with a coalition of organizations representing various public safety disciplines and local government types to express concerns with a proposal in the President’s FY 2013 budget request to consolidate a number of grant programs administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Some FEMA grants are not part of the proposed consolidation, including the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program.
On March 20, the NVFC signed onto a letter that was sent to the congressional appropriations and authorizing committees of jurisdiction.
“Everyone agrees that we should spend our homeland security dollars where they are needed most in an efficient and effective manner and that we need to improve cooperation and communication among the various agencies and governments involved in making our homeland secure,” reads the letter. “While we share the goals of using risk assessments and reducing administrative burdens, we do not believe that a decade’s worth of work in building the regional governance and collaboration structures of these programs should be discarded in the wholesale fashion proposed without full consideration through congressional reauthorization of the grant programs. Until the preparedness grant programs are reauthorized by Congress, the current grant program structure as authorized by law should be followed.”
