I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3155
To direct the Secretary of Transportation to establish a grant program
for providing assistance to emergency response organizations, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 27, 1999
Mr. GEKAS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Transportation and Infrastructure
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Transportation to establish a
grant program for providing assistance to emergency re-
sponse organizations, 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 ‘‘Firefighter’s Local-
Federal Assistance for Management of Emergencies Act
of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAM.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish and
carry out a grant program to provide assistance to emer-
gency response organizations.
(b) GRANTS TO STATES.—Under the program, the
Secretary may make grants to States that have in effect
an emergency response loan program. The amount of a
grant to a State shall be the amount apportioned to such
State under section 6 and shall be paid to the head of
the State agency that administers such program.
(c) USE OF GRANTS.—A State receiving a Federal
grant under this Act shall use the amount of the Federal
grant to make grants to an eligible emergency response
organization to assist the organization in repaying a loan
the organization received before, on, or after the date of
enactment of this Act under the emergency response loan
program of the State.
SEC. 3. AMOUNT OF GRANT TO ERO.
The amount of a grant that a State receiving a Fed-
eral grant under this Act may make to an emergency re-
sponse organization in a fiscal year shall be equal to (1)
the amount of funds that the organization received from
nongovernmental sources in the preceding fiscal year and
that were matched by a grant from a unit of local govern-
ment in the preceding fiscal year, plus (2) the amount of
such matching payment; except that the aggregate amount
of grants that a State may make to an emergency response
organization under this Act shall not exceed $15,000 per
fiscal year.
SEC. 4. ELIGIBILITY OF ERO.
To be eligible for a grant from a State under this
Act, an emergency response organization must—
(1) submit to the agency that administers the
emergency response loan program of the State an
application for such grant in such form and con-
taining such information as such agency may re-
quire; and
(2) demonstrate to the satisfaction of the head
of such agency a legitimate financial need for the
grant.
SEC. 5. SPECIAL AUDITING PROCEDURES.
(a) STATE REQUIREMENTS.—Not later than Decem-
ber 31, 2001, and each December 31 thereafter, the head
of the State agency to which a grant is made under this
Act shall submit to the Secretary a report on the number
and amounts of grants made by the State agency to emer-
gency response organizations with Federal assistance pro-
vided under this Act, the average amount of such grants,
the average amount of time it took the State agency to
process applications for such grants, the average budget
of emergency response organizations that received such
grants, and the percentage of volunteers in the workforce
of emergency response organizations providing emergency
response services within the boundaries of the State.
(b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than the last
day of the first fiscal year following the fiscal year in
which funds are made available to carry out this Act, the
Secretary shall transmit to Congress a report on the re-
ports provided under subsection (a), together with a rec-
ommendation on whether or not to extend the authoriza-
tion of this Act.
SEC. 6. APPORTIONMENT.
The Secretary shall apportion amounts made avail-
able to carry out this Act for a fiscal year among States
that have in effect an emergency response loan program
on the basis of their relative populations as determined
by the Secretary under the most recent decennial census
of the United States.
SEC. 7. AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS.
(a) DATE AVAILABLE
FOR OBLIGATION.—Funds
made available to carry out this Act shall be available for
obligation on the date of their apportionment or on Octo-
ber 1 of the fiscal year for which they are authorized,
whichever occurs first.
(b) PERIOD OF AVAILABILITY.—Funds apportioned
to a State under this Act shall remain available for obliga-
tion in that State until the last day of the fiscal year in
which they are apportioned. Sums not obligated by the last
day of the fiscal year in which they are apportioned shall
be apportioned to other States that have in effect an emer-
gency response loan program in accordance with section
6.
SEC. 8. FUNDING.
The Secretary shall make available, from amounts set
aside under section 104(a) of title 23, United States Code,
for each of fiscal years 2001 and 2002, $11,000,000 per
fiscal year to carry out this Act.
SEC. 9. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act, the following definitions apply:
(1) EMERGENCY
RESPONSE
ORGANIZATION.—
The term ‘‘emergency response organization’’ any
public fire, ambulance, and rescue company the
workforce of which includes volunteers.
(2) EMERGENCY RESPONSE LOAN PROGRAM.—
The term ‘‘emergency response organization loan
program’’ means a program sponsored by a State
under which loans are made, at below market inter-
est rates, to emergency response organizations for
the acquisition, rehabilitation, or improvement of fa-
cilities and equipment necessary for those organiza-
tions to provide emergency response services in an
area within the boundaries of the State.
(3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means
the Secretary of Transportation.
(4) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means the 50
States and the District of Columbia.
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