[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3155 Introduced in House (IH)]







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 response organizations, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 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 emergency 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 Federal grant under 
this Act may make to an emergency response 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 government 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 containing such information as such 
        agency may require; 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 December 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 emergency 
response organizations with Federal assistance provided 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 reports provided under subsection (a), together with a 
recommendation on whether or not to extend the authorization of this 
Act.

SEC. 6. APPORTIONMENT.

    The Secretary shall apportion amounts made available 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 October 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 obligation 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 
emergency 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 interest 
        rates, to emergency response organizations for the acquisition, 
        rehabilitation, or improvement of facilities and equipment 
        necessary for those organizations 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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