FDs, if you’ve been worried about grant funding getting reallocated for the border wall, some recent news should set you at ease.
President Trump has signed into law the Consolidated Fiscal Year 2019 Appropriations Act. This $333 billion spending package includes multi-million dollar increases to many grant programs. Here’s a breakdown of funding levels for various grants and agencies:
* AFG and SAFER have been funded at $350M FOR EACH PROGRAM, which is level funding from 2018
* State Fire Assistance program funded at $81 million, which is up $1 million from FY18
* State Homeland Security Grant Program (SHSGP) funded at $525 million, which is $18 million up from FY18
* United States Fire Administration (USFA) funded at $44.179 million (plus another $1.5 million for National Fire Academy infrastructure improvements). FY18 funding was $42.9 million
* Urban Area Search and Rescue System funded at $45.18 million, which is $10.15 million up from FY18
* Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) funded at $640 million, which is $10 million up from FY18
* Volunteer Fire Assistance (VFA) program funded at $17 million, which is $1 million up from FY18
The upshot?
These crucial grant programs are healthy. You can safely ignore any doom-and-gloom nonsense circulating in the media or around the station table.
If you haven’t already, get working on those SAFER applications, start prepping for FY19 AFG, and look into any other Federal program that might benefit your department.
Congress and the President have done their job on allocating the funds. Now it’s your turn to get to work on winning those grants!