IAFF Wins Significant Funding for SAFER Grants

December 21, 2007 -- Despite a variety of significant obstacles as Congress approached its annual year-end recess, the IAFF succeeded in winning a unprecedented increase in funding for the SAFER grant program. H.R. 2764, the Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2008, included $190 million for SAFER, an increase of more than 65 percent over the previous year.

Representative David Price (D-NC) and Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) were instrumental in securing the largest funding increase in the program’s history.

“I congratulate and thank the Congress for standing up for our nation’s first responders and providing them with the funding they need to safely and efficiently protect the homeland,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. “This is a great victory for the IAFF and America’s professional fire fighters – one which could not have been accomplished without the dedication and sheer force of will of our friends in Congress.”

The 2008 budgetary cycle proved especially challenging – the president cut all funding for SAFER in his budget proposal and demanded Congress meet his spending levels. The resulting months-long stalemate threatened to freeze SAFER funding for the coming year. Throughout this impasse, the IAFF continued to make the case for a significant increase in SAFER funds.

In addition to the $190 million provided to SAFER, the spending bill also funds other IAFF priorities, including $32.5 million for Urban Search and Rescue teams (a $7.5 million increase), $50 million for a new emergency communications grant program, and $560 million for FIRE Act grants (a $13 million increase).

Despite providing no funding for SAFER in his annual budget and threatening to veto homeland security funding earlier this year, the president is expected to sign the bill into law.