Mr. President, I rise today to offer an amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill to help protect our ports and coasts from fire by making a small change to criteria for spending the appropriations for the Firefighters Assistance Grants program. I want to thank the floor managers for their assistance and their support.
The amendment has the support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The language will permit FEMA the flexibility to give fire boats equal consideration to fire trucks when awarding grants for purchases of fire vehicles under the Firefighter Assistance Grants program.
Port security is critically important for Hawaii which imports 80 percent of its products. Ninety-eight percent of these products are brought to Hawaii by ship, and about half of these products come through Honolulu Harbor alone.
Many of the nation's largest cities are located on the water, whether an ocean, a harbor, or a major river or lake, where thousands of people may live or visit. Suburban areas spreading out from a city can also be on the water, having marinas or piers. Commercial ports are essential to our economy. Ninety-five percent of all U.S. trade flows through the nation's more than 400 ports.
In a major industrial port area having the necessary marine firefighting equipment could prevent serious consequences for the port, a state, or even the national economy. My state of Hawaii is only one example. Eighty-five percent of all refined fuel products for the North East come from Delaware River ports. If a ship were to burn and sink in the single channel serving the ports the price and distribution of petroleum products in the North East could be seriously affected.
The Firefighters Assistance Grants program under the U.S. Fire Administration is a major source of federal assistance to local fire departments around the nation. It is a necessary and popular program that has distributed hundreds of millions of needed dollars to fire departments nationwide.
Purchases of firefighting vehicles are authorized under the Firefighter Assistance Grant program. However, the U.S. Fire Administration 2003 program guidance does not encourage fire departments to submit grants for fire boats. Fire trucks are given a Priority One and fire boats a Priority Three in the Vehicle Acquisition Program Priorities for urban areas. In suburban and rural areas, fire boats are a Priority Four. Due to funding constraints, the program guidance notes that it is unlikely that vehicles that are not listed as Priority One or Priority Two would be funded.
The Nation's fire boat resources are old and under funded – a number of fire boats are more than 60 years old. If a fire department decides it wants a fire boat rather than a fire truck to meet its particular fire and disaster response needs it should be able to submit an application to that effect. Such an application should receive equal consideration to an application for a fire truck.
My amendment is revenue neutral. It does not seek to add to the $750 million appropriated for the Firefighter Assistance Grants is program in FY 2004, although the efforts by Senator Byrd and other Senators to increase the appropriations are timely and worthwhile. Rather, the intent of my amendment is to put fire boats on equal footing with fire trucks in the Firefighter Assistance Grants program if the geography of a local fire department makes the acquisition of a fire boat important to their fire fighting capabilities.
I look forward to the Senate's support for this amendment.
