FEMA’s GPD is responsible for managing DHS’s suite of preparedness grants, including three fire grants designed to provide funding for local fire departments, emergency medical service (EMS) organizations, and firefighter and fire prevention interest groups. GPD’s AFG Program Office administers the three fire grant programs: AFG program grants fund personal protective equipment, vehicles, and other operational equipment for fire service and EMS organizations, as well as projects to modernize facilities, deliver training, and develop health and fitness programs. SAFER grants fund the hiring of salaried firefighters and the costs of recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters. FP&S grants fund research and community initiatives, such as installing smoke detectors among high-risk populations or performing fire prevention research studies to support firefighter safety. Figure 1 illustrates the general uses for each fire grant program, and the award funding available in fiscal year 2014. Figure 2 shows the grant award levels for each fire grant program. For further information on annual funding levels, see appendix I table 3. The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) is another component in FEMA. Its mission is to provide national leadership for fire and emergency services stakeholders in prevention, preparedness, and response efforts. USFA initially administered the AFG program when it was established in December 2000, and DHS subsequently transferred program management responsibilities in fiscal year 2004. Since 2005, report language accompanying appropriations acts directed FEMA to fund fire grant applications according to local priorities and those established by USFA. USFA’s goals are to reduce fire and life safety risk through preparedness, prevention and mitigation, promote response, local planning and preparedness for all hazards, enhance the fire and emergency services’ capability for response to and recovery from all hazards, and advance the professional development of fire service personnel and of other people engaged in fire prevention and control. USFA staff also work with local responders to increase national capacity of firefighters by providing free training and education programs that support fire departments and emergency services organizations in preparing for, preventing and responding to fires and other hazards through the USFA National Fire Academy. FEMA’s National Preparedness Assessment Division is responsible for assessing national “whole community” preparedness to, among other things, analyze and illustrate the impact of GPD’s preparedness grants. Officials conduct qualitative and quantitative assessments of 32 core capabilities that support the National Preparedness Goal by, among other things, analyzing State Preparedness Reports (SPR) and developing the National Preparedness Report. According to FEMA, the 32 national preparedness core capabilities provide a common standard to integrate federal, state, local, and tribal preparedness efforts. States use the core capabilities to conduct their Threat and Hazard Identification Risk Assessments (THIRA) and submit annual SPRs to FEMA on the level of that state’s preparedness, as a requirement for non-fire preparedness grants. In September 2015, FEMA updated the National Preparedness Goal to, among other things, include a new core capability for Fire Management and Suppression. Beginning in 2017, states will be required to include an assessment of their level of fire management and suppression capabilities to FEMA as a requirement to receive non-fire preparedness grants, according to FEMA officials. Each year, FEMA organizes a panel of subject matter experts to identify that year’s funding priorities and criteria for fire grants., Following review and discussion of the previous year’s information, the criteria development panel submits its recommendations for funding priorities and grant award criteria—including those on which participants do not reach consensus—in a report to GPD. After considering the panel’s recommendations and developing the grant guidance for the three grant programs, GPD submits the proposed grant guidance to other offices within FEMA for internal review. Subsequently, GPD sends the guidance to OMB for approval. Following approval, FEMA announces the availability of each grant program, providing Notices of Funding Opportunity online to potential applicants. The grant application review process for all three competitive grant programs includes three evaluation stages: an automated scoring or manual prescreening process to determine eligibility and alignment with the grant programs’ funding priorities; a peer review panel, in which practitioners within the fire service community evaluate and score the applications; and a final technical review by subject matter specialists and GPD officials. The grant review and award processes are represented in Figure 3. Our analysis of FGRA identified 26 amendments related to fire grant application and award policies. FEMA incorporated 16 of these 26 changes into its existing grant application and awards processes (see table 1). For the remaining 10 cases, FEMA used existing authorities to waive changes related to FGRA amendments or found that no change to existing policy was necessary. See Appendix II for a summary of these amendments and a detailed description of FEMA’s corresponding changes to the grant programs (see app. II, table 4). The number of fire grants applications and awards from 2009 through 2014 are shown in Figure 4 and the outcomes associated with specific amendments and related policy changes are described below. AFG Application Policy Changes—Four of the 26 FGRA amendments are related to application policies for the AFG program. FEMA addressed two of the amendments by expanding the criteria for eligible AFG applicants. For example, state fire training academies are now eligible to apply for fire grants, and two or more entities can now submit regional applications for a grant to fund a joint program or initiative. For the remaining two amendments, FEMA officials identified existing grant policies related to eligible grant uses or considerations required by FGRA when awarding AFG grants, and did not make changes since these policies were already in place. For example, AFG prioritizes firefighter personal protective equipment grants to increase the degree to which an award will reduce deaths and injuries among firefighters. Although FEMA expanded the criteria for eligible AFG applicants, AFG grant applications decreased from about 19,800 in fiscal year 2009 to about 10,000 in fiscal year 2014. FEMA officials and national fire service associations attributed the decrease, in part, to application fatigue—when departments give up after not receiving an award after applying over multiple years—and the increase in administrative requirements and the associated workload. According to FEMA officials and national fire service association representatives, these factors may have affected decreasing application rates for SAFER and FP&S grants as well. AFG Award Policy Changes—Seven of the 26 FGRA amendments are related to FEMA’s award policies for the AFG program, which FEMA implemented by changing its AFG award policies. Specifically, FGRA included an amendment that established minimum award allocations for career, volunteer, and combination fire departments. Prior to FGRA, the distribution of AFG funds among career, combination, and volunteer departments fluctuated more across fiscal years. For example, volunteer departments received 43 percent of fiscal year 2009 funds, and 25 percent of fiscal year 2011 funds. After implementation of FGRA in the fiscal year 2013 grant cycle, career, combinations and volunteer fire departments received slightly more than 30 percent of AFG funds in fiscal years 2013 and 2014 (see app. III table 5). FGRA also requires that FEMA make not more than 3 percent of AFG funds available for grants to state fire training academies, with a $1 million grant maximum. Previous policy did not allow state academies to apply, so FEMA changed AFG policy accordingly and set a $500,000 grant maximum. In both fiscal years 2013 and 2014, state fire training academies received 3 percent of AFG funding and no academies were awarded grants larger than $500,000 (see app. III table 8). According to FEMA officials, they reached an agreement with the national fire service organizations to limit the grants to $500,000 to ensure that a larger number of academies could receive grants. FEMA implemented other FGRA amendments requiring that no individual AFG grant exceeds one percent of total AFG funding, revising grantee cost matching requirements for jurisdictions of various sizes, and allowing FEMA to waive the revised grantee cost matching requirements for economic hardship. SAFER Application Policy Changes—One of the 26 FGRA amendments is related to application policies for the SAFER program. Specifically, FGRA makes national and tribal firefighter interest organizations eligible to apply for SAFER Recruitment and Retention grants. Under previous application policy, national organizations were ineligible to apply and tribal organizations were eligible but had to classify themselves as local entities in their applications. FEMA changed SAFER policies to allow national organizations to apply for recruitment and retention grants and for tribal organizations to be classified separately from local organizations beginning in the fiscal year 2013 SAFER grant cycle. SAFER Award Policy Changes—Six of the 26 FGRA amendments are related to FEMA’s award policies for the SAFER program, establishing the length of the grant period and amounts for local cost sharing, among other changes. FEMA waived all six of these requirements for the SAFER program, citing provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and annual Fire Grant appropriations as their authority to do so. These post-award requirements have been waived by FEMA since fiscal year 2009. FEMA officials said that they chose to waive the award policy amendments to provide greater flexibility to grantees since the award conditions for SAFER grants, both in FGRA and in previous law, are too restrictive and grantees frequently defaulted on their cost matching and performance responsibilities. As a result, SAFER grants have been 100 percent federally funded from fiscal year 2009 through fiscal year 2015. This waiver authority was not included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016. Appendix III, table 4 provides a detailed description of the FGRA amendments to SAFER award policies waived by FEMA.