I 
109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5272 
To amend the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 to authorize 
the Administrator of the United States Fire Administration to provide 
assistance to firefighting task forces, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 2, 2006 
Mrs. LOWEY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Science 
A BILL 
To amend the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act 
of 1974 to authorize the Administrator of the United 
States Fire Administration to provide assistance to fire-
fighting task forces, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Firefighters Special 
Operation Task Force Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR FIREFIGHTING TASK FORCES. 
The Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 
(15 U.S.C. 2201 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 
the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 37. ASSISTANCE FOR FIREFIGHTING TASK FORCES. 
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) CRITICAL
INFRASTRUCTURE.—The term 
‘critical infrastructure’ has the meaning given that 
term in section 1016(e) of the Critical Infrastruc-
tures Protection Act of 2001 (42 U.S.C. 5195c(e)). 
‘‘(2) FIREFIGHTING
PERSONNEL.—The term 
‘firefighting personnel’ has the meaning given that 
term in section 33(a). 
‘‘(3) INCIDENT RESPONSE.—The term ‘incident 
response’ means a response by a task force or task 
force unit to— 
‘‘(A) a terrorist attack, including such an 
attack that utilizes a weapon of mass destruc-
tion; 
‘‘(B) a release of a hazardous material; 
‘‘(C) a natural disaster; or 
‘‘(D) any other emergency for which a re-
sponse by a fire service is appropriate. 
‘‘(4) MEMBER.—The term ‘member’, with re-
spect to a task force, means a fire service that is a 
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party to the cooperative agreement establishing the 
task force. 
‘‘(5) TASK
FORCE.—The term ‘task force’ 
means 2 or more fire services that collectively con-
sist of at least 50 firefighting personnel, operating 
pursuant to a cooperative agreement for the purpose 
of coordinating incident response among such fire 
services. 
‘‘(b) GRANT AUTHORITY.—The Administrator may 
award not more than 100 grants for task forces each fiscal 
year for the purposes described in subsection (c). 
‘‘(c) PURPOSES.—A grant awarded under this section 
shall be used— 
‘‘(1) to provide salary and benefits to hire fire-
fighting personnel or rehire firefighting personnel 
who have been laid off to provide services to the task 
force, including salary and benefits; 
‘‘(2) to pay expenses related to the participation 
of firefighting personnel in appropriate training 
courses; 
‘‘(3) to provide training related to incident re-
sponse to firefighting personnel; 
‘‘(4) to obtain appropriate equipment, including 
firefighting vehicles or support systems for members 
of the task force; 
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