By: National Special Districts Coalition
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) opened on Monday the Fiscal Year 2023 Assistance to Firefighter Grant (AFG) application period. Special districts providing fire protection services are eligible to apply to be among 2,000 to receive a piece of $324 million available for this year’s funding opportunity.
AFG provides resources for fire departments’ ability to equip and train emergency responders, provide compliant personal protective equipment and gear, upgrade facilities, procure emergency vehicles, implement emergency responder wellness programming, and to foster operational efficiencies.
The full Notice of Funding Opportunity is available here. All AFG documents are available here.
Districts seeking AFG funding for eligible projects must provide non-federal match funds as a prerequisite for the grant. Applicants serving a population of 20,000 or fewer will need five percent match, those serving between 20,000 and 1 million will need a 10 percent match, and all others a 15 percent match. Award maximums range from $1 million for communities with populations of fewer than 100,000 to $3.2 million for departments serving populations of 2.5 million or more.
Interested special districts must first secure a Unique Identification Number on www.sam.gov or ensure their entity status is active, which is required to pursue all federal funding opportunities. Districts must also create an account on www.go.fema.gov prior to beginning their application then use the account to submit. More information on “FEMA GO” is found here.
FEMA will provide a deeper dive on AFG with application development workshops. Each one-hour workshop will feature FEMA Grants Specialists provide best practices to build a successful application. Register for scheduled workshops through February 9 at this link.
The AFG application period ends Friday, March 8, at 5 p.m. ET.
CSDA members seeking resources for their AFG grant applications, as well as other grant opportunities, are encouraged to reach out to the NSDC-TFG Grants Team at nsdcgrants@tfgnet.com.
This round of AFG funding, technically for FY23, is the final round authorized under current law. Understanding the significance of federal fire service programs to the nation’s 6,000+ fire districts, NSDC supports bicameral, bipartisan legislation to reauthorize AFG as well as the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER). Known as the Fire Grants and Safety Act, S. 870 (Peters), would reauthorize both AFG and SAFER appropriations through FY30, while H.R. 4090 (Kean) reauthorizes appropriations for the programs through FY28. Both Senate and House and bills await further action in the House.
NSDC encourages districts supporting AFG and SAFER reauthorization to contact their member of the U.S. House of Representatives to ask for their support to reauthorize these popular fire service programs and to pass a compromised version of these bills before the September 30 deadline.
Contact Cole Arreola-Karr, NSDC Federal Advocacy Director, for questions at colek@nationalspecialdistricts.org.
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