I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1609 

To authorize the Secretary of Education to make grants to support fire 

safety education programs on college campuses. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 17, 2013 

Mr. PASCRELL (for himself and Mr. KING of New York) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the 

Workforce 

A BILL 

To authorize the Secretary of Education to make grants 

to support fire safety education programs on college campuses. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Campus Fire Safety 

5 Education Act of 2013’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 

7 The purpose of this Act is to help provide fire safety 

8 education and training to students attending institutions 

9 of higher education. 


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1 SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CAMPUS FIRE SAFETY 

2 EDUCATION COMPETITIVE GRANT PROGRAM. 

3 (a) AUTHORIZATION OF GRANT PROGRAM.—From 

4 the amounts appropriated under section 7, the Secretary, 

5 in consultation with the Administrator, shall establish a 

6 grant program to award grants, on a competitive basis, 

7 to eligible entities for— 

8 (1) initiating, expanding, or improving fire safe9 ty education programs at institutions of higher edu10 cation; and 

11 (2) increasing fire safety awareness among stu12 dents enrolled at such institutions, including stu13 dents living in off-campus housing. 

14 (b) APPLICATION.—To seek a grant under this Act, 

15 an eligible entity shall submit an application to the Sec16 retary at such time, in such manner, and containing such 

17 information as the Secretary may require. 

18 (c) SELECTION PRIORITY.—In making grants under 

19 this Act, the Secretary shall give priority to eligible enti20 ties that plan to use grant funds received under this Act 

21 to initiate, expand, or improve fire safety education pro22 grams that include educational material specifically pre23 pared for students with physical, sensory, or cognitive dis24 abilities. 

25 (d) GRANT PERIOD.—Grants under this Act shall be 

26 awarded for not longer than a 2-year period, and may be 


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1 renewed for an additional 2-year period, at the Secretary’s 

2 discretion. 

3 (e) GRANT SIZE.—The Secretary shall ensure that 

4 grants awarded under this Act are of sufficient size and 

5 scope to enable grantees to carry out all required activities 

6 and otherwise meet the purpose of this Act, except that 

7 an eligible entity may not be awarded more than $250,000 

8 per fiscal year under this Act. 

9 (f) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.—An eligible entity re10 ceiving a grant under this Act shall provide non-Federal 

11 matching funds in an amount equal to not less than 25 

12 percent of the costs of the activities for which assistance 

13 is sought. Such non-Federal matching funds may be in 

14 cash or in-kind. 

15 (g) SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT.—Funds made 

16 available under this Act shall be used to supplement, not 

17 supplant, other Federal, State, or private funds that would 

18 otherwise be expended to carry out fire safety education 

19 programs. 

20 SEC. 4. REQUIRED USES OF FUNDS. 

21 (a) REQUIRED USES OF FUNDS.—An eligible entity 

22 receiving a grant under this Act shall use grant funds to 

23 initiate, expand, or improve a fire safety education pro24 gram that— 


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1 (1) in the case of an eligible entity that is an 

2 institution of higher education, reaches, to the ex3 tent practicable, all students enrolled in the institu4 tion of higher education, including students living 

5 on-campus and off-campus; 

6 (2) is carried out in a manner to ensure max7 imum exposure to, increased awareness of, and effec8 tuate change in behavior with respect to fire safety 

9 by students through— 

10 (A) conducting outreach to students at a 

11 minimum of twice per academic year (at the be12 ginning of the fall and spring semesters, or the 

13 equivalent); and 

14 (B) measures that provide fire safety infor15 mation to any student upon the request of the 

16 student; 

17 (3) includes minimum instruction with respect 

18 to— 

19 (A) awareness of fire behavior; 

20 (B) mechanisms of fire injury and death; 

21 (C) common ignition scenarios; 

22 (D) fire safety systems such as automatic 

23 fire sprinklers; 

24 (E) fire alarms; 

25 (F) fire extinguishers; 


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1 (G) importance of means of egress; 

2 (H) fire prevention techniques that may 

3 prevent a fire from occurring (such as candle 

4 safety, cooking safety, and smoking safety); and 

5 (I) fire safety actions to be taken if a fire 

6 occurs to minimize the potential for death, in7 jury, and property damage (such as knowing 

8 how to use a fire extinguisher, how to put out 

9 a cooking fire, calling 911, and evacuating); 

10 and 

11 (4) includes a mechanism for carrying out the 

12 evaluations described in subsection (b). 

13 (b) EVALUATIONS.—Not later than 6 months after 

14 the end of an eligible entity’s grant period, the eligible en15 tity shall— 

16 (1) conduct an evaluation on the effectiveness 

17 of the program carried out by the entity in increas18 ing awareness or improving fire safety behavior at 

19 such entity; and 

20 (2) prepare and submit to the Secretary a re21 port on the results of the evaluation conducted by 

22 the entity. 

23 SEC. 5. REPORTS. 

24 (a) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 12 

25 months after the date of receipt of the first report subVerDate Mar 15 2010 03:45 Apr 24, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1609.IH H1609

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1 mitted pursuant to section 4(b)(2) and annually there2 after, the Secretary shall provide to Congress a report that 

3 includes the following: 

4 (1) The number and types of eligible entities re5 ceiving assistance under this Act. 

6 (2) The fire safety education programs being 

7 implemented with assistance under this Act and the 

8 costs of such programs. 

9 (3) Any other information determined by the 

10 Secretary to be useful in evaluating the overall effec11 tiveness of the program established under this Act in 

12 improving the fire safety knowledge of college stu13 dents. 

14 (b) BEST PRACTICES REPORT.—The Secretary, in 

15 consultation with the Administrator, shall use the infor16 mation provided under subsection (a) to publish a report 

17 of best practices for initiating, expanding, or improving 

18 fire safety education programs that shall be made avail19 able to all institutions of higher education and other inter20 ested parties. 

21 SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 

22 In this Act: 

23 (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis24 trator’’ means the Administrator of the United 


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1 States Fire Administration of the Federal Emer2 gency Management Agency. 

3 (2) FIRE SAFETY EDUCATION PROGRAM.—The 

4 term ‘‘fire safety education program’’ means a pro5 gram that provides fire safety and prevention activi6 ties. 

7 (3) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.—The 

8 term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 

9 meaning given to such term in section 101 of the 

10 Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001). 

11 (4) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti12 ty’’ means an institution of higher education, or con13 sortium of institutions of higher education located in 

14 the same State, in a collaborative partnership with 

15 a nonprofit organization or a public safety depart16 ment. Such a collaborative partnership may also in17 clude a social fraternity or sorority exempt from tax18 ation under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue 

19 Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. 501(a)), the active mem20 bership of which consists primarily of students en21 rolled at the institution or institutions. 

22 (5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

23 the Secretary of Education. 


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1 SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

2 There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

3 this Act $15,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2014 

4 through 2018. 

Æ 


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