With the looming deadline mere hours away, one of the questions that should be on the minds of millions of Americans is what will the impact be to the ability of local First Responders?
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial market meltdown, many cities found themselves in a serious financial strait, and resorted to laying off firefighters across the nation. In response to that harsh and unsafe reality, President Obama worked with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to alter the rules to the SAFER Grant program, which provides federal money to hire firefighters in local communities where finances do not allow for the necessary staffing levels to safely and effectively respond to fire emergencies. The program was altered to allow for cities that had laid off firefighters to rehire them with federal support, to ease the struggling communities' difficulty in maintaining effect fire protection.
With the sequester's across the board cuts, which some have estimated to be at a minimum of 5% to 7% within each agency, will firefighters once again be laid off? Will cities that had found a possible solution to a pressing public safety problem?
This does not begin to address the other significant grant program that has been a hallmark of FEMA for the past decade, the FIRE Act Grant. The FIRE Act grant provides funding to local fire departments to buy such essential items as breathing apparatus that permit firefighters to enter smoke filled and hazardous environments, hoses and axes, extrication equipment, even the protective suits and fire engines. This program has allowed thousands of departments-career and volunteer-to replace aging and dangerous equipment, and in some cases purchase required equipment that was never owned. Millions of Americans have benefited directly from this program. Check with your local fire department and ask what needed equipment and training they were able to finally obtain because of the FIRE Act grant.
Both of these grant programs are ongoing and often are unnoticed by the public, as they do not see FEMA field agents pounding the ground in a community before the award. This is the prevention part of what emergency management does. And both of these programs, of the millions of dollars that are spent, are managed with less than 5% of the allotted funds in the program. In terms of the federal government-any level of government-this represents cutting edge efficiency and understanding the demands of taxpayers that government works smarter. These programs are also reviewed and approved by a panel of fire service professionals, not career {C}
bureaucrats who may have read a technical manual along the way. If a fire department requests something, there needs to be a legitimate reason for the request, along with a demonstrated need. This process has allowed the most deserving fire departments to get the money they need to protect their citizens.
If the sequester takes effect, these programs very easily will see drastic reductions in funding, if not elimination. This will place many taxpayers in jeopardy. It will have wasted untold hours in planning and research that is necessary to bring a successful request to fruition.
President Obama noted in Newport News, VA on Tuesday that the sequester mandated cuts are not a wise way to reduce spending. A few fire trucks and some firefighting equipment in the grand scheme of the federal budget are hardly worth noting, as they do not rise to a statistically relevant number. But for those small rural communities that rely on pancake breakfasts and annual picnics to fund their fire department, this is perhaps the most monumental cut that could be made. It is also one of the more foolish ideas that have been hatched in recent years.
Contact your local fire department and ask if they had been working on submitting a request for a FIRE Act grant or a SAFER grant. Then contact you congressional representative and tell them to get to work and govern. Firefighters will still respond, but will they be able to provide the help YOU deserve and expect?
Help your firefighters protect YOU!
Click on the links below to learn more about how these grants are impacting communities around the country.
http://www.fema.gov/welcome-assistance-firefighters-grant-program
http://www.fema.gov/staffing-adequate-fire-emergency-response-grants
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