I
107TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4548
To amend the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 with respect
to firefighter assistance.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 23, 2002
Mr. SMITH of Michigan (for himself, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. WELDON of Pennsyl-
vania, and Mr. HOYER) 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 with respect to firefighter assistance.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FIREFIGHTER ASSISTANCE.
The first section 33 of the Federal Fire Prevention
and Control Act of 1974 (15 U.S.C. 2229) is amended
to read as follows:
‘‘SEC. 33. FIREFIGHTER ASSISTANCE.
‘‘(a) DEFINITION OF FIREFIGHTING PERSONNEL.—
In this section, the term ‘firefighting personnel’ means in-
dividuals, including volunteers, who are firefighters, offi-
cers of fire departments, or emergency medical service per-
sonnel of fire departments.
‘‘(b) ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.—
‘‘(1) AUTHORITY.—In accordance with this sec-
tion, the Administrator may—
‘‘(A) make grants on a competitive basis
directly to fire departments of a State, in con-
sultation with the chief executive of the State,
for the purpose of protecting the health and
safety of the public, firefighting personnel, and
property against fire and fire-related hazards;
and
‘‘(B) provide assistance for fire prevention
programs in accordance with paragraph (4).
‘‘(2) OFFICE FOR ADMINISTRATION OF ASSIST-
ANCE.—
‘‘(A) ESTABLISHMENT.—Before providing
assistance under paragraph (1), the Adminis-
trator shall establish an office in the Adminis-
tration to administer the assistance under this
section.
‘‘(B) INCLUDED
DUTIES.—The duties of
the office shall include the following:
‘‘(i) 
RECIPIENT
SELECTION
CRI-
TERIA.—To establish specific criteria for
the selection of recipients of the assistance
under this section, including a requirement
for peer review of the selection process.
‘‘(ii) GRANT-WRITING
ASSISTANCE.—
To provide grant-writing assistance to ap-
plicants.
‘‘(3) USE
OF
FIRE
DEPARTMENT
GRANT
FUNDS.—The Administrator may make a grant
under paragraph (1)(A) only if the applicant for the
grant agrees to use the grant funds for one or more
of the following purposes:
‘‘(A) To hire additional firefighting per-
sonnel.
‘‘(B) To train firefighting personnel in
firefighting, emergency response (including re-
sponse to a terrorism incident or use of a weap-
on of mass destruction), arson prevention and
detection, or the handling of hazardous mate-
rials, or to train firefighting personnel to pro-
vide any of the training described in this sub-
paragraph.
‘‘(C) To fund the creation of rapid inter-
vention teams to protect firefighting personnel
at the scenes of fires and other emergencies.
‘‘(D) To certify fire inspectors.
‘‘(E) To establish wellness and fitness pro-
grams for firefighting personnel to ensure that
the firefighting personnel can carry out their
duties.
‘‘(F) To fund emergency medical services
provided by fire departments.
‘‘(G) To acquire additional firefighting ve-
hicles, including fire trucks.
‘‘(H) To acquire additional firefighting
equipment, including equipment for communica-
tions, monitoring, and response to a terrorism
incident or use of a weapon of mass destruc-
tion.
‘‘(I) To acquire personal protective equip-
ment required for firefighting personnel by the
Occupational Safety and Health Administra-
tion, and other personal protective equipment
for firefighting personnel, including protective
equipment to respond to a terrorism incident or
the use of a weapon of mass destruction.
‘‘(J) To modify fire stations, fire training
facilities, and other facilities to protect the
health and safety of firefighting personnel.
‘‘(K) To enforce fire codes.
‘‘(L) To fund fire prevention programs.
‘‘(M) To educate the public about arson
prevention and detection.
‘‘(N) To provide incentives for the recruit-
ment and retention of volunteer firefighting
personnel for volunteer firefighting departments
and other firefighting departments that utilize
volunteers, including funding to enable training
described in subparagraph (B).
‘‘(4) FIRE PREVENTION PROGRAMS.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For each fiscal year,
the Administrator shall use not less than 5 per-
cent of the funds made available under sub-
section (e)—
‘‘(i) to make grants to fire depart-
ments for the purpose described in para-
graph (3)(L); and
‘‘(ii) to make grants to, or enter into
contracts or cooperative agreements with,
national, State, local, or community orga-
nizations that are recognized for their ex-
perience and expertise with respect to fire
prevention or fire safety programs and ac-
tivities, for the purpose of carrying out fire
prevention programs.
‘‘(B) PRIORITY.—In selecting organiza-
tions described in subparagraph (A)(ii) to re-
ceive assistance under this paragraph, the Ad-
ministrator shall give priority to organizations
that focus on prevention of injuries to children
from fire.
‘‘(5) APPLICATION.—The Administrator may
provide assistance to a fire department or organiza-
tion under this subsection only if the fire depart-
ment or organization seeking the assistance submits
to the Administrator an application that meets the
following requirements:
‘‘(A) FORM.—The application shall be in
such form as the Administrator may require.
‘‘(B) INFORMATION.—The application shall
include the following information:
‘‘(i) FINANCIAL
NEED.—Information
that demonstrates the financial need of the
applicant for the assistance for which ap-
plied. In allocating funds under this sec-
tion, the Administrator shall not discrimi-
nate against an applicant whose funding
jurisdiction places a high budget priority
on fire department needs.
‘‘(ii) COST-BENEFIT
ANALYSIS.—An
analysis of the costs and benefits, with re-
spect to public safety, of the use of the as-
sistance.
‘‘(iii) REPORTING
SYSTEMS
DATA.—
An agreement to provide information to
the national fire incident reporting system
for the period covered by the assistance.
‘‘(iv) 
OTHER
INFORMATION.—Any
other information that the Administrator
may require.
‘‘(6) NON-FEDERAL CONTRIBUTION.—
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—Subject to subpara-
graph (B), the Administrator may provide as-
sistance under this subsection only if the appli-
cant for the assistance agrees to provide 30
percent of the cost of the purposes for which
the assistance is sought under this subsection in
non-Federal funds for any fiscal year.
‘‘(B) REQUIREMENT FOR SMALL COMMU-
NITY ORGANIZATIONS.—In the case of an appli-
cant whose personnel serve jurisdictions of
50,000 or fewer residents, the required non-
Federal contribution under subparagraph (A)
shall be 10 percent.
‘‘(7) MAINTENANCE OF EXPENDITURES.—The
Administrator may provide assistance under this
subsection only if the applicant for the assistance
agrees to maintain in the fiscal year for which the
assistance will be received the applicant’s aggregate
expenditures for the uses described in paragraph (3)
or (4) at or above the average level of such expendi-
tures in the two fiscal years preceding the fiscal year
for which the assistance will be received.
‘‘(8) REPORT TO THE ADMINISTRATOR.—The
Administrator may provide assistance under this
subsection only if the applicant for the assistance
agrees to submit to the Administrator a report, in-
cluding a description of how the assistance was used,
with respect to each fiscal year for which the assist-
ance was received.
‘‘(9) VARIETY
OF
FIRE
DEPARTMENT
GRANT
RECIPIENTS.—The Administrator shall ensure that
grants under paragraph (1)(A) for a fiscal year are
made to a variety of fire departments, including, to
the extent that there are eligible applicants—
‘‘(A) career, volunteer, and combination
fire departments;
‘‘(B) fire departments located in commu-
nities of varying sizes; and
‘‘(C) fire departments located in urban,
suburban, and rural communities.
‘‘(10) GRANT LIMITATIONS.—
‘‘(A) RECIPIENT LIMITATION.—A grant re-
cipient under this section may not receive more
than $750,000 under this section for any fiscal
year.
‘‘(B) LIMITATION ON EXPENDITURES FOR
FIREFIGHTING VEHICLES.—Not more than 25
percent of the funds appropriated to provide
grants under this section for a fiscal year may
be used to assist grant recipients to purchase
vehicles, as authorized by paragraph (3)(G).
‘‘(11) RESERVATION
OF
GRANT
FUNDS
FOR
VOLUNTEER DEPARTMENTS.—In making grants to
firefighting departments, the Administrator shall en-
sure that those firefighting departments that have
either all-volunteer forces of firefighting personnel or
combined forces of volunteer and career firefighting
personnel collectively receive at least a proportion of
the total grant funding that equals the proportion of
the United States population that those firefighting
departments protect.
‘‘(c) AUDITS.—A recipient of a grant under this sec-
tion shall be subject to audits to ensure that the grant
proceeds are expended for the intended purposes and that
the grant recipient complies with the requirements of
paragraphs (6) and (7) of subsection (b).
‘‘(d) STATE DEFINED.—In this section, the term
‘State’ includes the District of Columbia and the Common-
wealth of Puerto Rico.
‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be
appropriated to the Administrator $900,000,000 for
each of the fiscal years 2002 through 2004 for the
purposes of this section.
‘‘(2) 
ADMINISTRATIVE
EXPENSES.—Of 
the
funds appropriated pursuant to paragraph (1) for a
fiscal year, the Administrator may use not more
than five percent of the funds to cover salaries and
expenses and other administrative costs incurred by
the Administrator to operate the office established
under subsection (b)(2) and make grants and pro-
vide assistance under this section.’’.
SEC. 2. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS.
The second section 33 of the Federal Fire Prevention
and Control Act of 1974 (15 U.S.C. 2230) and section
34 of that Act (15 U.S.C. 2231) are redesignated as sec-
tions 34 and 35, respectively.
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