President Trump released his budget proposal this morning calling for a mix of cuts to domestic programs involving public health, education and clean energy, while seeking to increase spending on border security and a bigger military.
Preliminarily, there isn’t an impact to AFG & SAFER. The budget is vague, but it appears to consolidate federal wildland firefighting operations at the Department of the Interior. Overall, the proposal contains a 23% cut ($163 billion) to discretionary funding and a 13% increase to military spending. Ken and his staff are working through the 40-page budget and they will have an analysis I can send you late tonight or tomorrow.
- IAFC had a successful WUI conference in Kansas City with the last numbers for attendance being +/- 600 which is pretty strong considering the number of federal folks who were not able to attend due to travel or budgetary restrictions in place right now at the federal government level. The WUI conference goes back to Reno next year, March 24-26, 2026. A huge thank you to Wildland Fire Policy Committee Chair Chief Mark Novak for his leadership of the WFPC and the WUI Conference.
Several board members were in attendance at the CPSE Excellence Conference in Orlando the first week of April for non-IAFC items, but we used the opportunity to connect with our partners at CPSE and talk about future collaborations and paths forward between CPSE and IAFC. A tremendous thank you to CPSE Board President Chief Mary Cameli for her support and collaborative approach in working with the IAFC. As part of the week in Orlando, Past President John Butler was awarded the Ray Picard Award for his long-standing support of the Accreditation process, congratulations Chief Butler.
I was able to attend the Women in Fire event during the FDIC week in Indianapolis and continue the strong relationship that we are working to build with Women in Fire. We are working with Women in Fire on some ideas for FRI and look forward to continued work with them.
In regards to things on-going in D.C., the biggest news is that the manual review of AFG / SAFER grants has ended for now which should speed up the process of getting drawn downs from FEMA on existing grants. I don’t have a real solid update on the status of AFG grants submitted back in Dec / Jan nor do I have anything related to a NOFO for SAFER grants. Ken LaSala and his team continue to track things daily and if we have any major updates we will pass them on. In regards to NFA, not a lot of updates to share and we continue to track this. The NFFF weekend is still on schedule to this weekend, May 4th and 5th, on the NFA campus.
On Monday of this week, the Presidential Administration announced the names of the members assigned to the FEMA review council. There are no direct fire service names on the council with Nim Kidd our of Texas and Bob Fenton with FEMA being the closest two fire service names. We are continuing to see if there is an opportunity to add any additional names from the IAFC / fire service and will keep you posted if anything changes.
The discussions around the updated OSHA standards are still on-going and conversations with the IAFF and NVFC continue. I have asked Chief Billy Goldfeder to represent the IAFC in those conversations and Chief Matt Tobia will continue to be our point person for all things OSHA related.
With all of these continued changes in D.C., I have made the decision to stand up a task force on Homeland Security and FEMA Reform, the scope of the task force is to answer the following questions:
- What recommendations does the IAFC have for reforming or reorganizing FEMA?
- How can FEMA’s operations be improved to meet the needs of local fire departments?
- What recommendations does the IAFC have for revising the homeland security framework?
- What are the key components of HSPD-5; PPD-8, and other homeland security documents that the IAFC thinks should be changed or maintained?
- How should DHS revise the ESFs, National Essential Functions, Primary Mission Essential Functions, and other policies?
- As the Trump Administration transitions from a focus on all-hazards response to risk response, how will that afect local fire and EMS agencies?
- How will grant programs or training at the National Fire Academy be affected?
- What steps can the IAFC and local fire and EMS departments take as the Trump Administration continues to make radical changes to the U.S. government?
- How will the Trump Administration’s policies affect all-hazards response, like hazmat and wildland fire response?
I have appointed Chief James Schwartz as chair of the task force. He is a recognized expert on homeland security issues in Washington. Chief Schwartz served as the incident commander to the response to the Pentagon on 9/11. From 2004-2015, he served as the fire chief of the Arlington County (VA) Fire Department. He subsequently served as the deputy county manager for public safety and technology. Chief Schwartz served as the chair of the IAFC’s Terrorism and Homeland Security Committee from 2008 to 2014 and has remained active with the committee. He also served on the advisory council for the Joint Counterterrorism Assessment Team at the National Counter Terrorism Center and as a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Advisory Committee. Chief Schwartz also teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
- You may have already seen the IAFC Week in Review e-mail which contains a number of updates, happenings, and important dates for our association. If you haven’t seen it yet, check you spam folder for an e-mail from media@iafc.org. You can also view the Week in Review by clicking here
Upcoming dates of importance
May 1st Soft opening registration for FRI 2025 will open tomorrow, with the official opening being promoted as May 5th. Please check the website beginning tomorrow for some important information about FRI 2025 in Orlando.
May 5th – 7th Fire Rescue Med 2025 in Las Vegas, https://www.iafc.org/events/event/2025/05/05/default-calendar/fire-rescue-med—2025
May 13th – 15th Community Risk Reduction Leadership (CRRL) 2025 in Glendale, AZ, https://www.iafc.org/events/event/2025/05/13/default-calendar/community-risk-reduction-leadership-conference-2025
June 12th – 15th International Hazardous Materials Response Team Conference in Baltimore, MD, https://www.iafc.org/events/event/2025/06/12/default-calendar/international-hazardous-materials-response-teams-conference-2025