White House releases fiscal year 2014 budget proposal
White House releases fiscal year 2014 budget proposal
11 April 2013
published by www.cfsi.org
USA — On Wednesday, April 10th, the White House released President Obamas Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14) Budget Proposal. The $3.77 trillion budget includes $39 billion in spending for the Department of Homeland Security. This includes a number of programs of importance to the nations fire and emergency services.
The Administrations budget proposal recommends funding the Assistance to Firefighters (FIRE) Grant Program and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant Program at $335 million each in FY14. This is the same request the Administration made for Fiscal Year 2013. Congress recently passed a continuing resolution funding the federal government through the end of the current fiscal year. In that spending bill, the FIRE and SAFER grant programs were funded at $337.5 million each, but were also subject to a 0.092% across the board reduction for all programs in the Department of Homeland Security as well as the 5% reduction mandated by the sequestration. As a result, the budget request would represent a slight increase in funding.
Additionally, the White House is requesting $41.306 million for the United States Fire Administration (USFA). The Fiscal Year 2013 spending bill provided $42 million for USFA after the mandated rescissions. The budget proposal also contains a proposal from the previous years budget proposal that would consolidate a number of homeland security grant programs, including the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) and the State Homeland Security Grant Program, into a single National Preparedness Grant Program. The Administration is requesting $1.043 billion for this program.
Now that the Administration has released its proposal, the attention will now turns towards Capitol Hill said CFSI Executive Director Bill Webb. CFSI will be delivering a message in the months ahead to our lawmakers about the importance of the United States Fire Administration and the two grant programs to our nations fire service to ensure that they are properly funded. With so much focus on the federal budget, we encourage the fire service leaders who will attend the 25th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner and Seminars Program on May 8-9 to address these issues in meetings with their members of Congress. The House and Senate will be working on the Fiscal Year 2014 spending bills while fire service officials will be meeting in Washington for this event.
