105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1231

AN ACT

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,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

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

5 Administration Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1998

6 and 1999’’.
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1 SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

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

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

4 (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of subpara5 graph (E);

6 (2) by striking the period at the end of sub7 paragraph (F) and inserting a semicolon; and

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

9 ‘‘(G) $29,664,000 for the fiscal year ending

10 September 30, 1998; and

11 ‘‘(H) $30,554,000 for the fiscal year ending

12 September 30, 1999.’’.

13 SEC. 3. SUCCESSOR FIRE SAFETY STANDARDS.

14 The Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974

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

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

17 successor standard to that standard’’ after ‘‘Associa18 tion Standard 74’’;

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

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

21 whichever is appropriate,’’;

22 (3) in section 29(b)(2), by inserting ‘‘, or any

23 successor standard to that standard’’ after ‘‘Associa24 tion Standard 13 or 13–R’’;
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1 (4) in section 31(c)(2)(B)(i), by inserting ‘‘or

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

3 Safety Code)’’; and

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

5 any successor standard to that standard’’ after ‘‘As6 sociation Standard 101’’.

7 SEC. 4. TERMINATION OR PRIVATIZATION OF FUNCTIONS.

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

9 termination or transfer to a private sector person or entity

10 of any significant function of the United States Fire Ad11 ministration, as described in subsection (b), the Adminis12 trator of the United States Fire Administration shall

13 transmit to Congress a report providing notice of that ter14 mination or transfer.

15 (b) COVERED TERMINATIONS AND TRANSFERS.—

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

17 to a person or entity described in that subsection shall

18 be considered to be a termination or transfer of a signifi19 cant function of the United States Fire Administration if

20 the termination or transfer—

21 (1) relates to a function of the Administration

22 that requires the expenditure of more than 5 percent

23 of the total amount of funds made available by ap24 propriations to the Administration; or
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1 (2) involves the termination of more than 5 per2 cent of the employees of the Administration.

3 SEC. 5. NOTICE.

4 (a) MAJOR REORGANIZATION DEFINED.—With re5 spect to the United States Fire Administration, the term

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

7 Administration that involves the reassignment of more

8 than 25 percent of the employees of the Administration.

9 (b) NOTICE OF REPROGRAMMING.—If any funds ap10 propriated pursuant to the amendments made by this Act

11 are subject to a reprogramming action that requires notice

12 to be provided to the Committees on Appropriations of the

13 Senate and the House of Representatives, notice of that

14 action shall concurrently be provided to the Committee on

15 Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and

16 the Committee on Science of the House of Representa17 tives.

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

19 15 days before any major reorganization of any program,

20 project, or activity of the United States Fire Administra21 tion, the Administrator of the United States Fire Adminis22 tration shall provide notice to the Committees on Science

23 and Appropriations of the House of Representatives and

24 the Committees on Commerce, Science, and Transpor25 tation and Appropriations of the Senate.
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1 SEC. 6. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE YEAR 2000 PROBLEM.

2 With the year 2000 rapidly approaching, it is the

3 sense of Congress that the Administrator of the United

4 States Fire Administration should—

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

6 date-related problems in the computer systems of

7 the United States Fire Administration to ensure

8 that those systems continue to operate effectively in

9 the year 2000 and in subsequent years;

10 (2) as soon as practicable after the date of en11 actment of this Act, assess the extent of the risk to

12 the operations of the United States Fire Administra13 tion posed by the problems referred to in paragraph

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

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

16 by the year 2000; and

17 (3) develop contingency plans for those systems

18 that the United States Fire Administration is unable

19 to correct by the year 2000.

20 SEC. 7. ENHANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

21 PROGRAMS.

22 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

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

25 States Fire Administration.
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1 (2) EDUCATIONALLY USEFUL FEDERAL EQUIP2 MENT.—The term ‘‘educationally useful Federal

3 equipment’’ means computers and related peripheral

4 tools and research equipment that is appropriate for

5 use in schools.

6 (3) SCHOOL.—The term ‘‘school’’ means a pub7 lic or private educational institution that serves any

8 of the grades of kindergarten through grade 12.

9 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—

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

11 that the Administrator should, to the greatest extent

12 practicable and in a manner consistent with applica13 ble Federal law (including Executive Order No.

14 12999), donate educationally useful Federal equip15 ment to schools in order to enhance the science and

16 mathematics programs of those schools.

17 (2) REPORTS.—

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

19 after the date of enactment of this Act, and an20 nually thereafter, the Administrator shall pre21 pare and submit to the President a report that

22 meets the requirements of this paragraph. The

23 President shall submit that report to Congress

24 at the same time as the President submits a
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1 budget request to Congress under section

2 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code.

3 (B) CONTENTS OF REPORT.—The report

4 prepared by the Administrator under this para5 graph shall describe any donations of education6 ally useful Federal equipment to schools made

7 during the period covered by the report.

8 SEC. 8. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

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

10 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the

11 United States Fire Administration (referred to in this sec12 tion as the ‘‘Administrator’’) shall prepare and submit to

13 the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

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

15 of Representatives a report that meets the requirements

16 of this section.

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

18 section shall—

19 (1) examine the risks to firefighters in sup20 pressing fires caused by burning tires;

21 (2) address any risks that are uniquely attrib22 utable to fires described in paragraph (1), including

23 any risks relating to—

24 (A) exposure to toxic substances (as that

25 term is defined by the Administrator);
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1 (B) personal protection;

2 (C) the duration of those fires; and

3 (D) site hazards associated with those

4 fires;

5 (3) identify any special training that may be

6 necessary for firefighters to suppress those fires; and

7 (4) assess how the training referred to in para8 graph (3) may be provided by the United States

9 Fire Administration.

Passed the Senate November 4, 1997.

Attest:

Secretary.
105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1231

AN ACT

To authorize appropriations for fiscal years 1998

tion, and for other purposes.and 1999 for the United States Fire Administra-