Criminal Justice Committee Focuses on Crime Bill, Fire Grants

by Ed Somers
January 29, 2001

Chaired by Reno Mayor Jeff Griffin, the Criminal and Social Justice Committee met on January 18 to discuss the future of crime legislation and a new $100 million fire grant program.

In beginning the meeting, Mayor Griffin outlined the drug control and public safety positions contained in the Priorities for The New American City ten-point plan released by Conference President Coles that same day.

The drug control and public safety section was developed by a team led by Mayor Griffin and Gary Mayor Scott King, and contained six key points:

• A national drugs in prisons policy;

• A call for increased treatment resources at the local level, with greater mayoral control;

• Greater federal attention to border control, and domestic methemphetamine production and use;

• A complete federal audit of the allocation of federal drug control resources;

• A new local block grant for crime control with maximum flexibility; and

• Gun safety provisions including fully enforcing existing laws and enactment of meaningful new gun safety provisions.

House Staff Discuss Crime Legislation

The mayors were joined by Chief Counsel Glenn Schmitt and Counsel to the Minority Bobby Vassar for the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime to discuss crime legislation in the 107th Congress.

The committee staff observed that neither side was sure who would be serving as chair and ranking member, so that their observations could only be general until leadership was determined.

A major discussion point centered on the COPS program and the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant.  In previous years, the Republican leadership in the Committee and Congress had pushed for the block grant, with the Clinton Administration and Democratic members favoring the COPS program.  Authorization for the COPS program has expired, and the LLEBG was never fully authorized, although both programs have continued to be funded.

Both Mr. Schmitt and Vassar agreed that with President Clinton no longer in office and holding a veto pen, support is likely to increase for a larger block grant.  In fact, the House passed legislation last year to authorize $2 billion annually for the block grant, although the bill was not enacted.

There was also extensive discussion on the issue of drug control and the need for treatment at the local level.  Houston Mayor Lee Brown, a former drug czar under President Clinton, urged mayors to take Members of Congress with them to successful drug treatment programs to demonstrate that these programs do work and to build support for funding.

$100 Million in Fire Grants Available

Included in the Defense Authorization Bill approved by Congress were amendments to the "Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act" to create a grant program for fire services.

Congress appropriated $100 million for this program for this fiscal year - to be administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its U.S. Fire Administration.

A presentation was made on this new program by Margaret Larson, Advisor for Congressional Affairs and Kristina Simpson, Advisor for Intergovernmental Affairs from FEMA.

The FEMA staff said that they are on a very fast schedule to move this new program forward in that they are required to announce all grants prior to September 30, 2001.

FEMA and the Fire Administration are meeting now with fire services organization to develop the criteria for the grants.  They expect to release the criteria through the Federal Register in March and then complete accepting grants by July.

Under the authorizing legislation, a 30 percent non-federal match is required.  However, in the case of an applicant whose personnel serve jurisdictions of 50,000 or fewer residents, the match requirement is 10 percent.  There is also a maintenance of effort requirement.

A fire department is limited to receiving no more than $750,000 for any fiscal year.

In addition, "not more than 25 percent of the funds appropriated to provide grants under this section for a fiscal year may be used to assist grant recipients to purchase vehicles."

While the authorizing bill created 14 categories of programs which could be funded, due to the short time frame FEMA will only allow six this year:

• train firefighting personnel;

• establish wellness and fitness programs for firefighting personnel;

• buy firefighting vehicles, including trucks;

• buy firefighting equipment, including equipment for communications and monitoring;

• buy personal protective equipment; and

• fund fire prevention programs.

Additional information on the program will be provided through the Conference of Mayors.  In addition, mayors can call FEMA's intergovernmental affairs office at (202) 646-4515 or email iga@fema.gov .