good afternoon the subcommittee will come to order and pursuant to notice the subcommittee on technology innovation meets to consider the following measure h r three seven nine one the fire grants  thousand and nine we have votes coming up on the floor sometime soon and the aspiration today will be to get through the markup in its entirety if we are not able to do that  we will recess until probably sometime tomorrow to finish the markup and to facilitate that i am going to submit  vast majority of my opening statement to be entered into the record but i just want to take one moment to recognize that the subcommittee has been working on this legislation in cooperation with the various fire service organization since the spring i especially want to commend the staff of the staff of this committee for the very hard work that they have put in to bring folks together both  ranking member smith and i have been working closely all stakeholders have their needs met as well as possible and this bill would not have been possible without the active work and cooperation of the international association of fire chiefs the international association of firefighters the national volunteer fire council the national fire protection association and the entire congressional fire services institute and i am very very pleased and thankful that everybody pulled together to ensure that we have a bill that will benefit all of this nation and with that i will yield to our ranking member mr smith of nebraska for his means by which many departments can acquire up to date equipment and training which requires a significant portion of their budget for their firefighters their particular truth particularly true in rural areas of my district or many communities would i upon all volunteer departments to respond fires and other emergencies the equipment needed to fight fires and save lives and property is costly and required for departments to meet certain minimum response capabilities regardless of whether they are protecting a community of a few hundred people or a large city of a few hundred thousand people as such firefighter grants have proven absolutely vital for rural and volunteer fire departments which have small tax bases for that and the least ability to acquire such equipment the bill before us today makes us make several modest changes to the safer programs reflecting a compromise reached by the leading fire service organizations who work closely with the committee to develop the legislation i support the changes in the underlying reauthorization effort but i do have some concerns and priorities i hope to address as we go forward in particular for the reasons i just mentioned i want to ensure the changes made in this legislation did not negatively impact the ability of smaller combination and volunteer departments to compete for and receive grants so i'll be offering an amendment today which attempts to clarify the grant process in this respect i also want to note that the funding for the program has declined over the last few years and is now far below both the currently authorized level as well as a level called for in this bill help as we go forward we can find a way to reverse this decline will o ordered the items will be entered into the record at this point and now i would like to recognize the gentleman from arizona mr mitchell a short statement thank you mr chairman you know the record the rest of my time i thank the gentleman does anyone else wish to be recognized if not i ask unanimous consent that the bill is considered as read and open to amendment at any point and that the members proceed with the amendments in the section thirty three and thirty four of that act reflecting all the changes that were made to the act in h r thirty seven ninety one couple of other things in addition this amendment adds a provision authorizing the administrator to establish university fire safety research centers from the ten percent set aside of funding for the fire prevention safety grants the administrators stablish up to three centers and finally it has language to require the u s fired ministration to work with the nih national protective association on a needs assessment for the fire service and report back to congress on the results that needs that needs assessment is there any further discussion of the amendment if not we will move to specific amendments the second amendment on the roster is an amendment offered by the gentleman from nebraska mr smith mr smith are you ready to proceed with your amendment the clerk without objection so ordered i recognize the gentleman from nebraska for five minutes to explain the amendment thank you mr chairman this amendment is intended to ensure a greater degree of confidence in the fire prevention safety portion of the program would require non fire department organizations which do not engage in fire related activities as a primary function to partner with local fire departments in order to be eligible partnering would allow local departments to soak so called bless an applicant with its plan without adding an unreasonable burden and in doing so ensure greater degree of confidence the proposal is worthy of funding i thank the gentleman for the amendment it is my intention to support it because i believe that it is a good idea to add the expertise of the fire department to any nonprofit organization that wants to do fire prevention and safety work i do ask that the gentleman be open to working with me to ensure that the language does not have any unintended consequences for organizations like the lions club the american red cross or others that are undoubtedly doing good work absolutely i think it's important to note that all along the way but certainly the affiliation with the fire department i think certainly adds credibility to the entire thing thank you very much is there any further discussion of the amendment if not the vote occurs on the amendment all in favor say aye aye those opposed say no in the opinion the chair the eyes have it is agreed to explain his amendment or less amendment adds language to the bill to clarify as fema reviews and considers applications under the program it must consider a broad range of factors related to a fire department's ability to respond to hazards is intended to compliment language in the base bill stating departments protecting larger populations and running higher call volumes receive priority is important to clarify this consideration be accompanied by consideration of other factors as well such as the department's geographic response area hazard vulnerability or financial situation these are all factors which significantly impact a fire department's capabilities and therefore should remain part of the peer review and award process let me certainly emphasize this addition is not intended to make any changes to the program but rather would codified existing practice with your smith i thank you for that explanation and it is my intention to accept this amendment i would note that the fire service has always been very active in developing this grant guidance with the us fire administration this amendment not change that they continue to be active in this role is there any further discussion of this amendment yes mr rouhani mr chairman just quickly i very much appreciate mr smith offering this amendment and really looking after some of the rural areas as well to make sure that we're all inclusive and that we're looking to see how we can improve fire service across the entire country as well as very much appreciated and thank you for being supportive mr chairman thank you very much mr l w anyone else wish to speak on this amendment if not the vote occurs on the amendment all those in favor say aye aye those opposed say no in the opinion the chair the eyes have it the eyes have it the amendment is agreed to are there any other amendments to the amendment in the nature of a substitute if not the vote occurs on the in the nature of a substitute as amended  apparently we have all the time in the world because we have we have we just have all the time in the world we always do if no the vote occurs on the amendment in the nature of a substitute as amended all the vote is now in the bill h r thirty seven ninety one as amended all those in favor will say i i all those opposed say no in the opinion of the chair the eyes have it the ayes have it in the bill is agreed to i recognize myself to offer a motion i move that this subcommittee favorably report h r thirty seven ninety one as amended to the full committee furthermore i move that staff be instructed to prepare the subcommittee report and make necessary technical and conforming changes to the bill in accordance with the recommendations of the subcommittee the question is on the motion to report the bill favorably those in favor of the motion will signify by saying i i those opposed no in the opinion of the chair the eyes have it and the bill is favorably reported without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table members will have two subsequent calendar days in which to submit supplemental minority or additional views on the measure i want to thank all the members for their hard work their cooperation in bringing this to the subcommittee and moving this expeditiously to the full committee and we look forward to floor passage of this important piece of legislation and this concludes our subcommittee markup and it would be wonderful if all mark ups were this cooperative and relatively quick and i thank everyone for their cooperation thank you very much this markup is adjourned thank you thank you