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Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to express my support for the Fire Grants and Safety Act, which is included in the bill we are considering today. I have co-led this bill with Senator Peters and fellow Congressional Fire Caucus cochairs, Senators Murkowski, Tester, and Carper.

The Fire Grants and Safety Act would reauthorize the U.S. Fire Administration and critical FEMA fire prevention programs through September 30, 2028. The current authorization for appropriations for all three of these entities expired on September 30, 2023, and the AFG and SAFER programs are set to sunset on September 30 of this year, absent action from Congress. This bill before us will extend authorizations for all three entities until September 30, 2028, and impose a new sunset clause of September 30, 2030, for AFG and SAFER.

This legislation, which passed the Senate on April 20, 2023, by an overwhelming vote of 95-2, has been pending in the House. I am pleased we will soon vote on the motion to concur with the House bill as amended and finally reauthorize these critical programs.

Firefighters across Maine and the country courageously and selflessly put their lives on the line to serve their towns and cities. Recognizing this, in 2000 and 2003, I helped create FEMA's firefighter grant programs as part of a bipartisan effort to ensure firefighters have the adequate staffing, equipment, and training to do their important jobs as effectively and safely as possible.

The Fire Grants and Safety Act would reauthorize three important firefighting and emergency services programs: the U.S. Fire Administration, which provides training and data to State and local departments, as well as education and awareness for the public; the Assistance for Firefighters Grant program, known as AFG, which helps equip and train firefighters and emergency personnel who work to keep us safe; and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response program, known as SAFER, which helps local fire departments recruit, hire, and retain additional firefighters.

Fire chiefs across Maine tell me about the importance of these programs in helping their local fire departments keep their communities safe. Since October 2020, fire departments across Maine received just under $12 million from the AFG and SAFER grant programs. These critical investments in local, rural fire departments supported replacements of decades old fire engines, obsolete self-contained breathing apparatuses, hiring of additional firefighters, and allowed fire departments to provide free health screenings to firefighters.

In 2023, an AFG grant enabled the town of Allagash in rural Aroostook County, ME, to replace its nearly 50-year old GMC firetruck with a newer model with double the water pumping capacity. To put this into perspective, the town was operating a firetruck built the same year the Vietnam war ended, to respond to fires in its 134-square-mile response area--or as the Allagash fire chief put it, an area roughly equal to the size of Atlanta.

In Portland, ME, an AFG grant enabled Portland Fire Department's marine division to cover the cost of lung cancer screenings for its firefighters. If it hadn't been for these screenings, doctors may not have detected a precancerous spot on Lieutenant Dave Crowley's lung until it was too late.

These examples underscore how important these grant programs are for fire departments across the Nation to safely provide lifesaving services and keep our communities safe. Failure to reauthorize these programs would have devastating impacts to the safety of Americans across the country. I urge my colleagues to support this bill's swift passage.

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