July 05, 2012

Manchin, Rockefeller and Rahall Announce Extension for Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program Deadline

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senators Jay Rockefeller, Joe Manchin and Congressman Nick Rahall today announced the Federal Emergency Management Agency is extending the paper application deadline for the Assistance to Firefighters grant program, which provides federal funds for agencies needing critical equipment, training and other fire-fighting resources.

Rockefeller this week sent a letter to FEMA Administrator William Fugate seeking an extension amid widespread power outages in West Virginia and the need for many emergency personnel to assist in storm recovery. Senator Manchin traveled around the state this week meeting with firefighters and first responders busy helping their communities recover from the storms, and he worked directly with FEMA to get this grant application deadline extended. 

All paper applications must be post-marked by July 16. The previous deadline was this Friday, July 6.  

“Many of our firefighters and first responders are busy sacrificing their time and energy helping West Virginians who have been displaced by last week’s storm,” Rockefeller said. “I’m glad FEMA responded so quickly to our concerns and extended this deadline.” 

“While traveling around West Virginia this week, one of the things I heard from our firefighters and first responders was their concern that they would miss the deadline to apply for critical grant dollars that fund equipment and other expenses,” Manchin said. “I promised to do all I could to ensure that helping our state recover from severe weather would not interfere with our firefighters’ ability to get the resources they need to keep our communities safe. I was pleased to work with FEMA to get this grant deadline extended, and I am very grateful to our firefighters and all of our first responders for the tremendous work they are doing to help our state recover from terrible storms.”

“Extending the deadline, especially over a couple of weekends, gives our already overworked volunteer departments some breathing room so they can file a competitive application for critical funding to help them do their jobs safely,” said Rahall. “The size and scope of this recent storm has certainly strained the response mechanisms upon which we have traditionally relied.  While we all hope this is a once in a lifetime emergency event, we can and should plant and grow seeds of opportunities for future statewide emergency responses.” 

Background:

The system for accepting electronic submissions will still shut down at 5 p.m. EDT Friday, July 6. FEMA will have information on the extension on the AFG website by Friday morning latest. Paper submissions will be accepted if postmarked by July 16. 

Applicants with partial applications online can still submit until 5pm Friday. After that deadline, they can still access their stored information to copy to a paper application and complete for submission. FEMA is setting up a help desk to walk applicants through the paper application procedure.  Call 1-866-274-0960 for more information. 

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