[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4548 Introduced in House (IH)]







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 
 Pennsylvania, 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 Representatives 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 individuals, including volunteers, 
who are firefighters, officers of fire departments, or emergency 
medical service personnel of fire departments.
    ``(b) Assistance Program.--
            ``(1) Authority.--In accordance with this section, the 
        Administrator may--
                    ``(A) make grants on a competitive basis directly 
                to fire departments of a State, in consultation 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 assistance.--
                    ``(A) Establishment.--Before providing assistance 
                under paragraph (1), the Administrator shall establish 
                an office in the Administration to administer the 
                assistance under this section.
                    ``(B) Included duties.--The duties of the office 
                shall include the following:
                            ``(i) Recipient selection criteria.--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 applicants.
            ``(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 personnel.
                    ``(B) To train firefighting personnel in 
                firefighting, emergency response (including response to 
                a terrorism incident or use of a weapon of mass 
                destruction), arson prevention and detection, or the 
                handling of hazardous materials, or to train 
                firefighting personnel to provide any of the training 
                described in this subparagraph.
                    ``(C) To fund the creation of rapid intervention 
                teams to protect firefighting personnel at the scenes 
                of fires and other emergencies.
                    ``(D) To certify fire inspectors.
                    ``(E) To establish wellness and fitness programs 
                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 vehicles, 
                including fire trucks.
                    ``(H) To acquire additional firefighting equipment, 
                including equipment for communications, monitoring, and 
                response to a terrorism incident or use of a weapon of 
                mass destruction.
                    ``(I) To acquire personal protective equipment 
                required for firefighting personnel by the Occupational 
                Safety and Health Administration, 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 recruitment 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 percent of the 
                funds made available under subsection (e)--
                            ``(i) to make grants to fire departments 
                        for the purpose described in paragraph (3)(L); 
                        and
                            ``(ii) to make grants to, or enter into 
                        contracts or cooperative agreements with, 
                        national, State, local, or community 
                        organizations that are recognized for their 
                        experience and expertise with respect to fire 
                        prevention or fire safety programs and 
                        activities, for the purpose of carrying out 
                        fire prevention programs.
                    ``(B) Priority.--In selecting organizations 
                described in subparagraph (A)(ii) to receive assistance 
                under this paragraph, the Administrator 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 organization under this 
        subsection only if the fire department 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 applied. 
                        In allocating funds under this section, the 
                        Administrator shall not discriminate 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 respect to 
                        public safety, of the use of the assistance.
                            ``(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 subparagraph (B), the 
                Administrator may provide assistance under this 
                subsection only if the applicant 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 community 
                organizations.--In the case of an applicant 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 expenditures 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, including a description of how the assistance was used, 
        with respect to each fiscal year for which the assistance 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 communities of 
                varying sizes; and
                    ``(C) fire departments located in urban, suburban, 
                and rural communities.
            ``(10) Grant limitations.--
                    ``(A) Recipient limitation.--A grant recipient 
                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 ensure 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 section 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 Commonwealth 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 provide 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 sections 34 and 35, respectively.
                                 <all>