Department of Homeland Security November 17, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (``CARES Act''). This bill provides $100 million for AFG-S to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. Specifically, AFG-S funds shall be for the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and related supplies, including reimbursements for previously purchased PPE back to January 1, 2020. On May 12, 2020, FEMA published a Notice of availability announcing the application period for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 AFG-S Program which opened on April 28, 2020 and closed on May 15, 2020. By law, at least 25 percent of available AFG-S funds must be awarded to volunteer fire departments and at least another 25 percent must be awarded to combination fire departments. FEMA did not receive enough applications to award at least 25 percent of the available AFG-S funds to volunteer or combination fire departments under that initial application period. As a result, FEMA has opened a second application period for the remaining $31 million available. This second applicationor AFG-S 2is limited to volunteer and combination fire departments to fulfill this requirement. Volunteer and combination fire departments are eligible to apply in this round even if they had a successful application in the first round of AFG-S funding. However, such applications must support new or additional needs or capabilities. Departments that applied in the first round of AFG-S funding but were unsuccessful can reapply to be considered for funding in this round. Applications from the first round of AFG-S funding will not automatically carry forward to this round for consideration. Pursuant to the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974, as amended, the Administrator of FEMA is publishing this notice describing the AFG-S 2 application process, deadlines, and award selection criteria. This notice explains the differences, if any, between these guidelines and those recommended by representatives of the national fire service leadership during a Criteria Development meeting, held April 20, 2020. The application period for the FY 2020 AFG-S Program opened on October 6, 2020, and closed on November 13, 2020, and was announced on the AFG website at https://www.fema.gov/ grants/preparedness/firefighters, as well as at https://www.grants.gov.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment upon this proposed revision of a currently approved collection of information. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, the information collection notice is published in the Federal Register to obtain comments regarding the nature of the information collection, the categories of respondents, the estimated burden (i.e. the time, effort, and resources used by the respondents to respond), the estimated cost to the respondent, and the actual information collection instruments.