II
117TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION S. 4690
To provide grants for fire station construction through the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
AUGUST 1, 2022
Mr. VAN HOLLEN (for himself and Mr. C ARDIN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Secu- rity and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To provide grants for fire station construction through the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fire Station Construc-4
tion Grants Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. ASSISTANCE TO FIREFIGHTERS FIRE STATION CON-6
STRUCTION GRANTS. 7
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
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(1) A DMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-1
trator’’ means the Administrator of the Federal 2
Emergency Management Agency. 3
(2) C AREER FIRE DEPARTMENT .—The term 4
‘‘career fire department’’ means a fire department 5
that has an all-paid force of firefighting personnel 6
other than paid-on-call firefighters. 7
(3) C OMBINATION FIRE DEPARTMENT .—The 8
term ‘‘combination fire department’’ means a fire 9
department that has— 10
(A) paid firefighting personnel; and 11
(B) volunteer firefighting personnel. 12
(4) EMS.—The term ‘‘EMS’’ means emergency 13
medical services. 14
(5) N ONAFFILIATED EMS ORGANIZATION .—The 15
term ‘‘nonaffiliated EMS organization’’ means a 16
public or private nonprofit EMS organization that is 17 not affiliated with a hospital and does not serve a 18
geographic area in which the Administrator finds 19
that EMS are adequately provided by a fire depart-20
ment. 21
(6) V OLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT .—The 22
term ‘‘volunteer fire department’’ means a fire de-23
partment that has an all-volunteer force of fire-24
fighting personnel. 25
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(b) G RANT PROGRAM.—The Administrator shall es-1
tablish a grant program to provide financial assistance to 2 entities described in subsection (c) to modify, upgrade, 3 and construct fire and EMS department facilities. 4
(c) ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS.—The Administrator may 5
make a grant under this section to the following: 6
(1) Career, volunteer, and combination fire de-7
partments. 8
(2) Fire training facilities. 9
(3) Nonaffiliated EMS organizations, combina-10
tion and volunteer emergency medical stations (ex-11
cept that for-profit EMS organizations are not eligi-12 ble for a grant under this section). 13
(d) A PPLICATIONS.—An entity described in sub-14
section (c) seeking a grant under this section shall submit 15 to the Administrator an application in such form, at such 16 time, and containing such information as the Adminis-17 trator determines appropriate. 18
(e) MEETING FOR RECOMMENDATIONS.— 19
(1) IN GENERAL .—The Administrator shall con-20
vene a meeting of qualified members of national fire 21 service organizations and, at the discretion of the 22
Administrator, qualified members of EMS organiza-23
tions to obtain recommendations regarding the cri-24
teria for the awarding of grants under this section. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 Aug 05, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4690.IS S4690pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •S 4690 IS
(2) Q UALIFICATIONS.—For purposes of this 1
subsection, a qualified member of an organization is 2
a member who— 3
(A) is recognized for firefighting or EMS 4
expertise; 5
(B) is not an employee of the Federal Gov-6
ernment; and 7
(C) in the case of a member of an EMS 8
organization, is a member of an organization 9
that represents— 10
(i) EMS providers that are affiliated 11
with fire departments; or 12
(ii) nonaffiliated EMS providers. 13
(f) P EER REVIEW OF GRANT APPLICATION.—The 14
Administrator shall, in consultation with national fire 15 service and EMS organizations, appoint fire service per-16 sonnel to conduct peer reviews of applications received 17 under subsection (d). 18
(g) P RIORITY OF GRANTS.—In awarding grants 19
under this section, the Administrator shall consider the 20 findings and recommendations of the peer reviews carried 21 out under subsection (f). 22
(h) USES OF FUNDS.— 23
(1) IN GENERAL .—A recipient of a grant under 24
this section may use funds received for the following: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 Aug 05, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4690.IS S4690pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5 •S 4690 IS
(A) Building, rebuilding, or renovating fire 1
and EMS department facilities. 2
(B) Upgrading existing facilities to install 3
exhaust emission control systems, install backup 4
power systems, upgrade or replace environ-5
mental control systems (such as HVAC sys-6
tems), remove or remediate mold, and construct 7
or modify living quarters for use by male and 8
female personnel. 9
(C) Upgrading fire and EMS stations or 10
building new stations. 11
(2) C ODE COMPLIANT .—In using funds under 12
paragraph (1), a recipient of a grant under this sec-13 tion shall meet 1 of the 2 most recently published 14
editions of relevant codes and standards, especially 15 codes and standards that— 16
(A) require up-to-date hazard resistant and 17
safety provisions; and 18
(B) are relevant for protecting firefighter 19
health and safety. 20
(i) GRANT FUNDING.— 21
(1) I N GENERAL .—The Administrator shall al-22
locate grant funds under this section as follows: 23
(A) 25 percent for career fire and EMS 24
departments. 25
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(B) 25 percent for combination fire and 1
EMS departments. 2
(C) 25 percent for volunteer fire and EMS 3
departments. 4
(D) 25 percent to remain available for 5
competition between the various department 6
types. 7
(2) I NSUFFICIENT APPLICATIONS .—If the Ad-8
ministrator does not receive sufficient funding re-9
quests from a particular department type described 10
in subparagraphs (A) through (C) of paragraph (1), 11
the Administrator may make awards to other de-12
partments described in such paragraphs. 13
(3) L IMITATION ON AWARDS AMOUNTS .—A re-14
cipient of a grant under this section may not receive 15 more than $7,500,000 under this section. 16
(j) P REVAILING RATE OF WAGE AND PUBLIC CON-17
TRACTS.— 18
(1) I N GENERAL .—All laborers and mechanics 19
employed by contractors or subcontractors in the 20
performance of construction work financed with the 21
assistance of any contribution of Federal funds 22
made by the Administrator under this section shall 23
be paid wages at rates not less than those prevailing 24 on similar construction in the locality as determined 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 Aug 05, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4690.IS S4690pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7 •S 4690 IS
by the Secretary of Labor in accordance with sub-1
chapter IV of chapter 31 of title 40, United States 2
Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Davis-Bacon Act’’). 3
(2) O VERTIME.—Each employee described in 4
paragraph (1) shall receive compensation at a rate 5
not less than one and 1⁄2 times the basic rate of pay 6 of the employee for all hours worked in any work-7
week in excess of 8 hours in any workday or 40 8
hours in the workweek, as the case may be. 9
(3) A SSURANCES.—The Administrator shall 10
make no contribution of Federal funds without first 11
obtaining adequate assurance that the labor stand-12
ards described in paragraphs (1) and (2) will be 13
maintained upon the construction work. 14
(4) A UTHORITY OF SECRETARY OF LABOR .— 15
The Secretary of Labor shall have, with respect to 16
the labor standards described in paragraphs (1) and 17
(2), the authority and functions set forth in Reorga-18 nization Plan Numbered 14 of 1950 (5 U.S.C. App.) 19
and section 3145 of title 40, United States Code. 20
(5) PUBLIC CONTRACTS .—Contractors and sub-21
contractors performing construction work pursuant 22
to this section shall procure only manufactured arti-23 cles, materials, and supplies that have been manu-24
factured in the United States substantially all from 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 Aug 05, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4690.IS S4690pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 8 •S 4690 IS
articles, materials, or supplies mined, produced, or 1
manufactured in the United States in accordance 2
with the requirements (and exceptions thereto) ap-3
plicable to Federal agencies under chapter 83 of title 4 41, United States Code. 5
(k) A PPLICABILITY OF FACA.—The Federal Advi-6
sory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply to 7 activities carried out pursuant to this section. 8
(l) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 9
(1) A NNUAL REPORT TO ADMINISTRATOR OF 10
FEMA.—Not later than 1 year after the date of en-11
actment of this Act, and annually thereafter during 12
the term of a grant awarded under this section, the 13
recipient of the grant shall submit to the Adminis-14
trator a report describing how the recipient used the 15 amounts from the grant. 16
(2) A NNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS .—Not later 17
than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, 18 and annually thereafter until the date on which the 19
rebuilding or renovation of fire facilities and stations 20 are completed using grant funds under this section, 21
the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on 22
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the 23
Senate and the Committees on Transportation and 24
Infrastructure and Science, Space, and Technology 25
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of the House of Representatives a report that pro-1
vides an evaluation of the effectiveness of the grants 2 awarded under this section. 3
(m) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 4
authorized to be appropriated $1,000,000,000 for fiscal 5 year 2022 to carry out this section. Funds appropriated 6 under this Act shall remain available until expended. 7 Æ
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