apportioning any funds under subsections (a) or 
(c).’’. 
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Congress 
that— 
(1) from fiscal years 2003 through 2008— 
(A) the funding appropriated for activities 
under section 33 of the Federal Fire Prevention 
and Control Act of 1974 declined by approxi-
mately 30 percent; and 
(B) the number of fire departments receiv-
ing awards declined by nearly 40 percent, while 
the number of applicants increased, resulting in 
a reduction in applicant success rates from over 
43 percent to just 25 percent; 
(2) the House-passed conference report for the 
Department of Homeland Security Appropriations 
Act, 2010 appropriates $390 million for activities 
under such section 33, a decrease of over 30 percent 
below that provided in fiscal year 2009; 
(3) declining funding reduces the Director’s abil-
ity to successfully carry out the primary purpose of 
such section, which is to protect the health and safety 
of the public and firefighting personnel throughout the 
Nation against fire and fire-related hazards; and 
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(4) halting and reversing the decline in appro-
priations to ensure a high level of funding for the ac-
tivities under such section 33 should be a top pri-
ority. 
SEC. 3. EXPANSION OF PRE-SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, FIRE 
GRANT PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION. 
Section 34 of the Federal Fire Prevention and Control 
Act of 1974 (15 U.S.C. 2229a) is amended to read as fol-
lows: 
‘‘SEC. 34. EXPANSION OF PRE-SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, FIRE 
GRANT PROGRAM. 
‘‘(a) EXPANDED AUTHORITY TO MAKE GRANTS.— 
‘‘(1) HIRING GRANTS.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The Director shall 
make grants directly to career, volunteer, and 
combination fire departments, in consultation 
with the chief executive of the State in which the 
applicant is located, for the purpose of increas-
ing the number of firefighters to help commu-
nities meet industry minimum standards and 
attain 24-hour staffing to provide adequate pro-
tection from fire and fire-related hazards and to 
fulfill traditional missions of fire departments 
that antedate the creation of the Department of 
Homeland Security. 
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‘‘(B) REQUIREMENTS.— 
‘‘(i) DURATION
AND
USE.—Grants 
made under this paragraph shall be for 3 
years and shall be used for programs to hire 
new, additional firefighters. 
‘‘(ii) RETENTION.—Grant recipients 
are required to commit to retaining for at 
least the entire 3 years of the grant period 
those firefighters hired under this para-
graph. 
‘‘(iii) MAXIMUM.—The portion of the 
cost of hiring firefighters provided by a 
grant under this paragraph may not exceed 
80 percent of such cost for each fiscal year. 
‘‘(C) PREFERENCE.—In awarding grants 
under this subsection, the Director may give 
preferential consideration to applications that 
involve a non-Federal contribution exceeding the 
minimums under subparagraph (B)(iii). 
‘‘(D) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Direc-
tor may provide technical assistance to States, 
units of local government, Indian tribal govern-
ments, and other public entities in furtherance of 
the purposes of this section. 
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‘‘(E) VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES ALLOWED.— 
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any 
firefighter hired with funds provided under this 
subsection shall not be discriminated against for, 
or be prohibited from, engaging in volunteer ac-
tivities in another jurisdiction during off-duty 
hours. 
‘‘(F) COMPETITIVE
BASIS.—The Director 
shall award all grants under this section on a 
competitive basis through a neutral peer review 
process. 
‘‘(G) SET ASIDE.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—At the beginning of 
the fiscal year, the Director shall set aside 
10 percent of the funds made available for 
carrying out this paragraph for depart-
ments with majority volunteer or all volun-
teer personnel. 
‘‘(ii) TRANSFER.—After awards have 
been made, if less than 10 percent of the 
funds made available for carrying out this 
paragraph are not awarded to departments 
with majority volunteer or all volunteer 
personnel, the Director shall transfer from 
funds made available for carrying out this 
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paragraph to funds made available for car-
rying out paragraph (2) an amount equal 
to the difference between the amount that is 
provided to such fire departments and 10 
percent. 
‘‘(2) RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION GRANTS.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—In addition to any 
amounts transferred under paragraph (1)(G)(ii), 
the Director shall direct at least 10 percent of the 
total amount of funds made available under this 
section annually to a competitive grant program 
for the recruitment and retention of volunteer 
firefighters who are involved with or trained in 
the operations of firefighting and emergency re-
sponse. 
‘‘(B) ELIGIBILITY.—Eligible entities shall 
include volunteer or combination fire depart-
ments and organizations on a local, statewide, or 
national basis that represent the interests of vol-
unteer firefighters. 
‘‘(b) APPLICATIONS.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—No grant may be made 
under this section unless an application has been sub-
mitted to, and approved by, the Director. 
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‘‘(2) CONTENTS.—An application for a grant 
under this section shall be submitted in such form 
and contain such information and assurances as the 
Director may prescribe. 
‘‘(3) REQUIREMENTS.—At a minimum, each ap-
plication for a grant under this section shall— 
‘‘(A) explain the applicant’s inability to ad-
dress the need without Federal assistance; 
‘‘(B) in the case of a grant under subsection 
(a)(1), explain how the applicant plans to meet 
the requirements of subparagraphs (B)(ii) and 
(E) of such subsection; 
‘‘(C) specify long-term plans for retaining 
firefighters following the conclusion of Federal 
support provided under this section; and 
‘‘(D) provide assurances that the applicant 
will, to the extent practicable, seek, recruit, and 
hire members of racial and ethnic minority 
groups and women in order to increase their 
ranks within firefighting. 
‘‘(c) LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS.— 
‘‘(1) 
SUPPLEMENT, 
NOT
SUPPLANT.—Funds 
made available under this section to fire departments 
for salaries and benefits to hire new, additional fire-
fighters shall not be used to supplant State or local 
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funds, or, in the case of Indian tribal governments, 
funds supplied by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but 
shall be used to increase the amount of funds that 
would, in the absence of Federal funds received under 
this section, be made available from State or local 
sources, or in the case of Indian tribal governments, 
from funds supplied by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 
‘‘(2) REPLACEMENT FUNDING PROHIBITED.—No 
grant shall be awarded pursuant to this section to a 
municipality or other recipient whose annual budget 
at the time of the application for fire-related pro-
grams and emergency response has been reduced below 
80 percent of the average funding level in the 3 years 
prior to the date of application. 
‘‘(3) INDIAN COST-SHARE.—Funds appropriated 
by the Congress for the activities of any agency of an 
Indian tribal government or the Bureau of Indian Af-
fairs performing firefighting functions on any Indian 
lands may be used to provide the non-Federal share 
of the cost of programs or projects funded under this 
section. 
‘‘(d) WAIVER.—In exceptional circumstances, the Di-
rector 
may 
waive 
the 
requirements 
of 
subsections 
(a)(1)(B)(ii), (a)(1)(B)(iii), (c)(1), and (c)(2) if the Direc-
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tor determines that the jurisdiction is facing demonstrated 
economic hardship in accordance with section 33(a)(8). 
‘‘(e) PERFORMANCE EVALUATION.—The Director may 
require a grant recipient to submit any information the Di-
rector considers reasonably necessary to evaluate the pro-
gram. 
‘‘(f) SUNSET; REPORTS.— 
‘‘(1) SUNSET.—The authority under this section 
to make grants shall lapse at the end of the 10-year 
period that begins on the date of enactment of the 
Fire Grants Reauthorization Act of 2009. 
‘‘(2) REPORT.—Not later than 6 years after such 
date of enactment, the Director shall submit to Con-
gress a report concerning the experience with, and ef-
fectiveness of, such grants in meeting the objectives of 
this section. The report may include any rec-
ommendations the Director may have for amendments 
to this section and related provisions of law. 
‘‘(g) REVOCATION OR SUSPENSION OF FUNDING.—If 
the Director determines that a grant recipient under this 
section is not in substantial compliance with the terms and 
requirements of an approved grant application submitted 
under this section, the Director may revoke or suspend 
funding of that grant, in whole or in part. 
‘‘(h) ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS.— 
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall have ac-
cess for the purpose of audit and examination to any 
pertinent books, documents, papers, or records of a 
grant recipient under this section and to the pertinent 
books, documents, papers, or records of State and 
local governments, persons, businesses, and other enti-
ties that are involved in programs, projects, or activi-
ties for which assistance is provided under this sec-
tion. 
‘‘(2) APPLICATION.—Paragraph (1) shall apply 
with respect to audits and examinations conducted by 
the Comptroller General of the United States or by an 
authorized representative of the Comptroller General. 
‘‘(i) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the term— 
‘‘(1) ‘Director’ means the Director, acting 
through the Administrator; 
‘‘(2) ‘firefighter’ has the meaning given the term 
‘employee in fire protection activities’ under section 
3(y) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 
U.S.C. 203(y)); and 
‘‘(3) ‘Indian tribe’ means a tribe, band, pueblo, 
nation, or other organized group or community of In-
dians, including an Alaska Native village (as defined 
in or established under the Alaska Native Claims Set-
tlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.)), that is recog-
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nized as eligible for the special programs and services 
provided by the United States to Indians because of 
their status as Indians. 
‘‘(j) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There are 
authorized to be appropriated for the purposes of carrying 
out this section $1,194,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 
2010 through 2014.’’. 
SEC. 4. STUDY AND REPORT. 
(a) STUDY AND REPORT ON ASSISTANCE TO FIRE-
FIGHTERS GRANT PROGRAM.— 
(1) STUDY.—The Administrator of the United 
States Fire Administration, in conjunction with the 
National Fire Protection Association, shall conduct a 
study to— 
(A) define the current roles and activities 
associated with the fire services on a national, 
State, regional, and local level; 
(B) identify the equipment, staffing, and 
training required to fulfill the roles and activi-
ties defined under subparagraph (A); 
(C) conduct an assessment to identify gaps 
between what fire departments currently possess 
and what they require to meet the equipment, 
staffing, and training needs identified under 
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subparagraph (B) on a national and State-by- 
State basis; and 
(D) measure the impact of the grant pro-
gram under section 33 of the Federal Fire Pre-
vention and Control Act of 1974 (15 U.S.C. 
2229) in— 
(i) meeting the needs of the fire services 
identified in the report submitted to Con-
gress under section 3603(a) of the Ronald 
W. Reagan National Defense Authorization 
Act for Fiscal Year 2005; and 
(ii) filling the gaps identified under 
subparagraph (C). 
(2) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall 
submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on 
Science and Technology of the House of Representa-
tives a report on the findings of the study described 
in paragraph (1). 
(b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There are 
authorized to be appropriated to the Administrator of the 
United States Fire Administration a total of $300,000 for 
fiscal years 2010 and 2011 to carry out subsection (a). 
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Union Calendar No. 191 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 3791 
[Report No. 111–333, Part I] 
A BILL 
To amend sections 33 and 34 of the Federal Fire 
Prevention and Control Act of 1974, and for 
other purposes. 
NOVEMBER 7, 2009 
Reported with an amendment and referred to the Com-
mittee on Homeland Security for a period ending not 
later than November 7, 2009, for consideration of such 
provisions of the bill and amendments as fall within 
the jurisdiction of that committee pursuant to clause 
1(i), rule X 
NOVEMBER 7, 2009 
Committee on Homeland Security discharged; committed 
to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
the Union and ordered to be printed 
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