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Governmental Affairs Committee |
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US FIRE GRANT SUPPORT GAC Resources For GAC documents, announcements, and information please click here to visit the microsite. Home Day 2007 Toolkit To download the Home Day 2007 Upcoming Events
HELP THE GAC!
Dear FAMA/FEMSA member: In January, you received an e-mail from the FAMA/FEMSA Governmental Affairs Committee (GAC) asking you to complete a survey that will help the GAC and its consultants learn what congressional relationships FAMA/FEMSA member companies have established. This information is essential to the GAC’s work to increase FAMA/FEMSA’s dialogue with federal government agencies in an effort to educate key officials on the important role our industry plays in providing equipment and services to the nation’s first responders. To help us enhance these efforts, we once again ask you to take a few moments to complete the enclosed survey. Specifically, this survey will help the GAC compile a comprehensive list of FAMA/FEMSA members’ locations and the congressional senators and representatives for those locations, an important step in establishing an educational network with the members of Congress and the administration. Please note that the survey can be conveniently completed online here. We also ask that the survey be completed as soon as possible. We have tried to keep this survey as simple and straightforward as possible. We thank you in advance for your assistance in this important effort. Sincerely, FAMA/FEMSA Governmental Affairs Committee
Subscribe to the Fire Grant Data website Success Stories RSS (Real Simple Syndication) news feed. Click here.
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House Passes Tax Relief For Volunteer Firefighters and EMS Personnel Fire Grant Support Information REGISTER NOW! 20th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner and Seminars FCC embraces emergency alert protocol Web Site Subscribers Alerted on Updated Content Katrina Response Model Could Help Pandemic Planning
House Passes Tax Relief For Volunteer Firefighters and EMS Personnel November 7, 2007 Yesterday, the United States House of Representatives passed the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act, which excludes from taxable income all property tax benefits and up to $360 per year of any other benefit paid to volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel by state and local units of government. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, passage of the HEART Act (H.R. 3997) will result in $994 million in tax savings for volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel over the next 10 years. Volunteer firefighters save American taxpayers more than $37.2 billion every year. Unfortunately, statistics show that the number of volunteer firefighters in the country have decreased over the last 20 years even as the average age of volunteer firefighters has gone up. Many communities have discovered that providing benefits to their volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel has a positive impact on retention and recruitment. Taxation of these benefits by the federal government reduces their value as an incentive to the volunteer and creates a significant administrative burden on small municipalities and townships. On October 17, National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) Connecticut State Director John McAuliffe testified before the House Ways and Means Committee about the need to prohibit the federal taxation of benefits for volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel. Since then, the NVFC worked closely with other organizations and members of the Ways and Means Committee to ensure that language providing tax relief to volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel was included in the HEART Act, which also includes various provisions regarding taxation of military income. On November 5, the NVFC, along with three other national organizations, sent a letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee expressing support for passage of the HEART Act. H.R. 3997 now goes to the Senate, where it will be considered by the Committee on Finance. The NVFC urges its members to contact their Senators and ask that they support passage of the HEART Act.
Source: DHS Fire Grant Support Information FEMA has done a great job of outlining the process of applying for and managing fire grants.
AFG FAQ’s
http://www.firegrantsupport.com/afg/faq/07/faq_app.aspx
AFG Guidance Documents
http://www.firegrantsupport.com/afg/guidance/
AFG Grant Management Tutorial – How to manage the grant after it has been awarded
http://www.firegrantsupport.com/prog/grantsmgt/
AFG Success Stories
http://www.firegrantsupport.com/afg/stories/
Source: FEMA REGISTER NOW! 20th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner and Seminars
Source: CFSI FCC embraces emergency alert protocol 11/05/07 -- 06:38 PM By Alice Lipowicz The Federal Communications Commission is endorsing adoption of the common alerting protocol technical standard for the nation’s next-generation emergency alert system, according to a Nov. 2 notice in the Federal Register. But the FCC said its requirement to system participants to adopt the protocol assumes the Homeland Security Department also endorses the protocol as expected. The protocol, developed by 130 emergency managers and technologists, was approved by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards in 2004. It is a standard format for sending and receiving emergency warning messages across multiple platforms. Several government agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey and National Weather Service, have implemented the protocol, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is currently testing the protocol and expects to adopt it, the FCC said in the Nov. 2 notice. “We conclude that all Emergency Alert System participants will be required to accept alerts and warnings in the CAP format should that protocol be adopted by FEMA,” the FCC notice said. “Although this requirement requires action by FEMA, we find that adopting it now furthers the prompt development of a state-of-the-art, next-generation national Emergency Alert System.” The FCC also stipulated that participants in the existing emergency alert system must continue to participate while performing upgrades to create the next-generation system. Furthermore, it rejected the idea that the National Weather Service’s weather radio alerts can replace the emergency alert system. The emergency alert system was established in the 1960s with a mandate to carry presidential alerts. It also is used voluntarily to carry state and local emergency warnings. The next-generation system will carry alerts to broadcast and cable television, radio, cell phones, telephones, e-mail and other messaging systems. A number of information technology contractors are active in the emergency management market. They produce hardware and software products for sending, receiving and managing alerts and warnings, and for linking with broader warning networks.
Source: Washington Technology FEMA Continues Response and Recovery Efforts in Southern California: FEMA Administrator Paulison makes second trip to areas ravaged by wildfires FEMA continues to work closely with California, local, tribal, and federal agencies to address the immediate and long-term needs of individuals, businesses, and communities damaged by the wildfires that have ravaged parts of southern California. FEMA and California are establishing a Unified Recovery Strategy that will serve as the overarching plan that guides an aggressive recovery approach. Key elements of this strategy include:
FEMA Administrator David Paulison made a second trip to southern California last week to talk with agency partners and assess the coordinated response and recovery effort. During his trip, Paulison met with state and local officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Paulison also visited the Joint Field Office in Pasadena, where he talked to FEMA staff, the Command Post for the Santiago fires, and a local assistance center, and he made ground and aerial tours of the damaged areas. On these tours, he was accompanied by Assistant Administrator for Disaster Assistance Carlos Castillo and Region IX Administrator Nancy Ward.
Source: DHS Web Site Subscribers Alerted on Updated Content The department’s Web site, www.dhs.gov, now features a new service to provide e-mail alerts when selected pages have been updated. This innovative feature returns more traffic to the site, helps subscribers keep up to date with relevant information, and allows the Web team to proactively highlight new and revised content. The Office of the Chief Information Officer has made this system available to all components. FEMA, the U.S. Fire Administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and READY.gov are using it already. To subscribe to the update alerts, please go to: https://service.govdelivery.com/service/user.html?code=USDHS&partner_id=5124. Source: DHS Katrina Response Model Could Help Pandemic Planning In dealing with infection control after Hurricane Katrina, one healthcare organization used a proven response model to prevent the spread of disease. But can that model work for pandemic response? Three experts say it can. In an article on the Infection Control Today magazine website, health experts Trudy Sanders, Adonna Lowe and Glenn Raup discuss how, after Katrina, the JPS Health Network was forced to rethink its response model, since the situation was so unique. “Previous emergency responses focused on hospital based responses for victims of ‘traditional’ disasters such as tornadoes, local floods, multiple vehicle crashes and major chemical spills,” the authors say. “The Katrina disaster, on the other hand, required a new type of response designed to focus on coordination of acute and chronic healthcare resources within a multi-staged response. Tarrant County was required to coordinate the issue of surge capacity, which is the ability to manage a sudden, unexpected increase in patient volume that would otherwise severely challenge or exceed the current capacity of the healthcare system.” That’s why JPS developed a patient-centric catastrophic tactical response model. The article offers a five-day journal of the event, and how JPS staff developed and implemented the model. But can it work for a pandemic? The authors say it can. “Hurricane Katrina disaster conditions required a new, sustained, phased type of surge response with decentralized resource management. A pandemic event or any catastrophic outbreak of infectious disease will likely have an intense and similar affect on the availability and delivery of healthcare services,” they write. Some of the measures mentioned in the article include include: Community surveillance To read the full article, click here: http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/articles/from-katrina-to-pandemic-business.html
Source: Disaster Resource Guide
The United States Fire Administration (USFA) has received notice of the following firefighter fatality: Name: Jeremy Wach
Source: USFA |
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