LON SLEPICKA
Firehouse.Com News
While the $5 billion Firefighter Investment and Response Enhancement is struggling
to move in this year's legislative process, national fire representatives remain
positive that the effort to award $100 million in grants will succeed.
The House and Senate versions of the "FIRE Act", H.R. 1168 and S.1941, would
give $5 billion in competitive grants to fire departments over five years through a Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program. But it remains stalled awaiting further
committee hearings.
The FIRE Act was introduced in 1999 by Representatives Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)
and Curt Weldon (R-PA) in the House and Senators Mike DeWine (R-OH) and
Christopher Dodd (D-CT) in the Senate.
A hearing on the House side in
April before the Transportation Committee received overwhelming support.
But even with more than 265 co-sponsors, no vote within
the House Transportation Committee has been held on the appropriation to push
the legislation along.
On the
Senate side, the bill was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in
November 1999 and is waiting to be scheduled for a hearing.
Craig Sharman, Legislative Affairs Specialist of the National Volunteer Fire Council
said, "As congress proceeds, as time gets less and less, chances of passing
the fire bill are decreasing".
He was referring to the need by Congress to
wrap up spending legislation for FY 2001 and have it to the President’s desk
by the October adjournment and the political campaign rush to the end of the
year.
Bill Webb with the Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI) said Senator
John McCain (R-AZ) promised some action on the FIRE Act when he was in the
Presidential race last spring, but nothing has materialized. "There just
aren’t too many legislative days left to get something done with this bill,
" Webb said.
"If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t put my money on passage this year",
Webb said. His main concern was the lengthy process the bill has yet to go
through and the lack of time and will in Congress to make it happen.
The federal government currently spends
$43 million a year on fire prevention
and training, paling in comparison
to the $11 billion spent annually on law enforcement, officials say.
Senator Dodd’s spokesman, Marvin Fast, says Dodd is committed to getting the
bill passed as soon as possible. "We look at any and all options to move
this bill forward. It has bipartisan support and we feel Congress should
move on this." "At the same time, never set your watch by the U.S.
Congress," Fast said.
Likewise, George Burke, spokesman for the International Association of Fire
Fighters (IAFF) remained positive about some action on the bill this
session. "Lots of things can happen in the waning days of congress," he
said. "The possibility of a vote exists, it is still in play until congress
adjourns. If there is not action in this Congress, we will work to introduce
it again in the next."
The Fiscal Year 2000 Supplemental Appropriations has passed the House. The
Senate version contains S. 2389, the 21st Century Fire and Emergency
Services Act, introduced by Senator William V. Roth, Jr. (R-DE), Chairman of
the Congressional Fire Services Caucus. The wording would give $100 million
to help train and equip firefighters and emergency services personnel
through Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The House passed a $12.7 billion spending package in March that included the
$100 million. But Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, (R-MS), was not
pleased with the house package and has blocked Senate action on much of the
spending up to this time. The problem for Roth will be to keep his bill
attached to some area of spending that will survive whatever Lott moves the
Senate to do.
"It's the rumor of the day as far as what Lott will do with the
supplemental appropriation", Webb said. Lott has gone from suggesting there
would be no supplemental appropriation coming out of the Senate, to cutting
up the House package into several parts, according to Webb.
"It’s not that we are pessimists," Webb said. "We are realists. We keep
hearing different things (on the Senate supplemental appropriation), and
there is no indication on where it will go."
.
The $100 million designated in the supplemental packages is slated to be distributed
as follows:
