Calendar No. 237

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1231

[Report No. 105–124]

A BILL

To authorize appropriations for fiscal years 1998

tion, and for other purposes.and 1999 for the United States Fire AdministraOCTOBER 30, 1997

Reported without amendment
II

Calendar No. 237

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1231

[Report No. 105–124]

To authorize appropriations for fiscal years 1998 and 1999 for the United

States Fire Administration, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

SEPTEMBER 26, 1997

Mr. FRIST (for himself, Mr. MCCAIN, Mr. HOLLINGS, and Mr. ROCKEFELLER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

OCTOBER 30, 1997

Reported by Mr. MCCAIN, without amendment

A BILL

To authorize appropriations for fiscal years 1998 and 1999

for the United States Fire Administration, and for other

purposes.

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

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘United States Fire

3 Administration Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1998

4 and 1999’’.

5 SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

6 Section 17(g)(1) of the Federal Fire Prevention and

7 Control Act of 1974 (15 U.S.C. 2216(g)(1)) is amended—

8 (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of subpara9 graph (E);

10 (2) by striking the period at the end of sub11 paragraph (F) and inserting a semicolon; and

12 (3) by adding at the end the following:

13 ‘‘(G) $29,664,000 for the fiscal year end14 ing September 30, 1998; and

15 ‘‘(H) $30,554,000 for the fiscal year end16 ing September 30, 1999.’’.

17 SEC. 3. SUCCESSOR FIRE SAFETY STANDARDS.

18 The Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974

19 (15 U.S.C. 2201 et seq.) is amended—

20 (1) in section 29(a)(1), by inserting ‘‘or any

21 successor standard to that standard’’ after ‘‘Associa22 tion Standard 74’’;

23 (2) in section 29(a)(2), by inserting ‘‘, or any

24 successor standard to that standard’’ before ‘‘,

25 whichever is appropriate,’’;
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1 (3) in section 29(b)(2), by inserting ‘‘, or any

2 successor standard to that standard’’ after ‘‘Associa3 tion Standard 13 or 13-R’’;

4 (4) in section 31(c)(2)(B)(i), by inserting ‘‘or

5 any successor standard to that standard’’ after ‘‘Life

6 Safety Code)’’; and

7 (5) in section 31(c)(2)(B)(ii), by inserting ‘‘or

8 any successor standard to that standard’’ after ‘‘As9 sociation Standard 101’’.

10 SEC. 4. TERMINATION OR PRIVATIZATION OF FUNCTIONS.

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days before the

12 termination or transfer to a private sector person or entity

13 of any significant function of the United States Fire Ad14 ministration, as described in subsection (b), the Adminis15 trator of the United States Fire Administration shall

16 transmit to Congress a report providing notice of that ter17 mination or transfer.

18 (b) COVERED TERMINATIONS AND TRANSFERS.—

19 For purposes of subsection (a), a termination or transfer

20 to a person or entity described in that subsection shall

21 be considered to be a termination or transfer of a signifi22 cant function of the United States Fire Administration if

23 the termination or transfer—

24 (1) relates to a function of the administration

25 that requires the expenditure of more than 5 percent
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1 of the total amount of funds made available by ap2 propriations to the Administration; or

3 (2) involves the termination of more than 5 per4 cent of the employees of the Administration.

5 SEC. 5. NOTICE.

6 (a) MAJOR REORGANIZATION DEFINED.—With re7 spect to the United States Fire Administration, the term

8 ‘‘major reorganization’’ means any reorganization of the

9 Administration that involves the reassignment of more

10 than 25 percent of the employees of the administration.

11 (b) NOTICE OF REPROGRAMMING.—If any funds ap12 propriated pursuant to the amendments made by this act

13 are subject to a reprogramming action that requires notice

14 to be provided to the committees on appropriations of the

15 Senate and the House of Representatives, notice of that

16 action shall concurrently be provided to the Committee on

17 Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and

18 the Committee on Science of the House of Representa19 tives.

20 (c) NOTICE OF REORGANIZATION.—Not later than

21 15 days before any major reorganization of any program,

22 project, or activity of the United States Fire Administra23 tion, the Administrator of the United States Fire Adminis24 tration shall provide notice to the Committees on Science

25 and Appropriations of the House of Representatives and
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1 the Committees on Commerce, Science, and Transpor2 tation and Appropriations of the Senate.

3 SEC. 6. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE YEAR 2000 PROBLEM.

4 With the year 2000 rapidly approaching, it is the

5 sense of Congress that the Administrator of the United

6 States Fire Administration should—

7 (1) give high priority to correcting all 2-digit

8 date-related problems in the computer systems of

9 the United States Fire Administration to ensure

10 that those systems continue to operate effectively in

11 the year 2000 and in subsequent years;

12 (2) as soon as practicable after the date of en13 actment of this Act, assess the extent of the risk to

14 the operations of the United States Fire Administra15 tion posed by the problems referred to in paragraph

16 (1), and plan and budget for achieving compliance

17 for all of the mission-critical systems of the system

18 by the year 2000; and

19 (3) develop contingency plans for those systems

20 that the United States Fire Administration is unable

21 to correct by the year 2000.

22 SEC. 7. ENHANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

23 PROGRAMS.

24 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
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1 (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis2 trator’’ means the Administrator of the United

3 States Fire Administration.

4 (2) EDUCATIONALLY USEFUL FEDERAL EQUIP5 MENT.—The term ‘‘educationally useful federal

6 equipment’’ means computers and related peripheral

7 tools and research equipment that is appropriate for

8 use in schools.

9 (3) SCHOOL.—The term ‘‘school’’ means a pub10 lic or private educational institution that serves any

11 of the grades of kindergarten through grade 12.

12 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—It is the sense of Congress

14 that the Administrator should, to the greatest extent

15 practicable and in a manner consistent with applica16 ble Federal law (including Executive Order No.

17 12999), donate educationally useful Federal equip18 ment to schools in order to enhance the science and

19 mathematics programs of those schools.

20 (2) REPORTS.—

21 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year

22 after the date of enactment of this Act, and an23 nually thereafter, the Administrator shall pre24 pare and submit to the president a report that

25 meets the requirements of this paragraph the
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1 President shall submit that report to Congress

2 at the same time as the President submits a

3 budget request to Congress under section

4 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code.

5 (B) CONTENTS OF REPORT.—The report

6 prepared by the Administrator under this para7 graph shall describe any donations of education8 ally useful Federal equipment to schools made

9 during the period covered by the report.

10 SEC. 8. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the

12 date of enactment of this act, the Administrator of the

13 United States Fire Administration (referred to in this sec14 tion as the ‘‘Administrator’’) shall prepare and submit to

15 the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

16 of the Senate and the Committee on Science of the House

17 of Representatives a report that meets the requirements

18 of this section.

19 (b) CONTENTS OF REPORT.—The report under this

20 section shall—

21 (1) examine the risks to firefighters in sup22 pressing fires caused by burning tires;

23 (2) address any risks that are uniquely attrib24 utable to fires described in paragraph (1), including

25 any risks relating to—
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1 (A) exposure to toxic substances (as that

2 term is defined by the Administrator);

3 (B) personal protection;

4 (C) the duration of those fires; and

5 (D) site hazards associated with those

6 fires;

7 (3) identify any special training that may be

8 necessary for firefighters to suppress those fires; and

9 (4) assess how the training referred to in para10 graph (3) may be provided by the United States

11 Fire Administration.