Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D), Assistant majority leader of the Senate, announced yesterday, the awarding of more than $2 million in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) program, to twelve fire departments and fire protection districts in Illinois. The grant program is a competitive program which seeks to strengthen overall levels of preparedness and ability to respond to fire and fire related hazards. The grant funding process took place through the efforts of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
When making the announcement of the grant Senator Durbin said, “Our nation’s firefighters are called upon day after day to protect America’s citizens. As these brave men and women put themselves in harm’s way, we must ensure that they are equipped with the best tools possible to do their jobs well and today’s grant’s goal.” (www.durbin.senate.gov1/31/2012). In 2011, the DHS awarded more than $380 million dollars for the purchase of emergency response equipment, personal protective equipment, training, and the purchase of vehicles. In 2010, Illinois received mover $14.8 million in federal funding for first responder organizations (www.durbin.senate.gov1/31/2012)
David Muhlhausen, a research fellow in empirical analysis at the Heritage Foundation, questions the efficacy of this and other Department of Homeland Security grants. In an interview with Homeland Security News Wire, he said the following: Officials at DHS should realize that the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program, Fire Prevention and Safety (FP& S) grants, and the Staffing for Adequate Fire Emergency Response (SAFER) programs are ineffective. The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis (CDA) collected data from 1999 to 2006 on 10,033 fire departments using regression analysis estimated the impact on the fire grants on fire causalities. Of those departments, 58.4% received fire grant awards while 41.6% did not. The CDA evaluation found that AFG, FP&S grants, and the Staffing for Adequate Fire Emergency Response grants had no impact on the occurrence of firefighter deaths, firefighter injuries, civilian deaths, or civilian injuries. Without receiving fire grants, comparison fire departments were as successful at preventing fire causalities as grant-funded departments. Further, these grants encourage local fire departments to become increasingly dependent on federal funding for providing basic fire services, such as subsidizing the salaries of firefighters. Thus these grants do not supplement or add capabilities of local fire departments to perform homeland security tasks.” (www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com, 2011.09)
At a time when state and local governments are experiencing budget cuts on many services as well as first responder programs, Muhlhausen calls on Congress to “eliminate funding for these firefighting grants.” (www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com 2011, 09)
Under the announcement, the following Illinois fire departments are among the facilities that will receive funding for vehicle acquisition: Steger Fire Department: $332,500 in funding; and Bellwood Fire Department: $712,500 in funding.
Comments