A. Purpose

Congress has determined that the protection of rural areas and rural communities from fire is of national interest, therefore, there is a Federal role.

The purpose of the Volunteer Fire Assistance (VFA) Program, formerly known as the Rural Community Fire Protection (RCFP) Program, is to provide Federal financial, technical, and other assistance to State foresters and other appropriate officials to organize, train, and equip fire departments in rural areas and rural communities to prevent and suppress fires. A rural community is defined as having 10,000 or less population. This 10,000 population limit for participation in the VFA Program facilitates distribution of available VFA funding to the most needy fire departments.

B. Legislative History of the VFA Program

The VFA Program was originally authorized in Title IV of Public Law 92-419, "The Rural Development Act of 1972." The Act authorized up to $7 million to organize, train, and equip local fire forces to prevent, control, and suppress fires in rural areas. In Fiscal Year 1975 the first appropriation of $3.5 million was provided for financial, technical, and other assistance to the State foresters to carry out this program. Title IV was later repealed by the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978(CFAA) (Public Law 95-313). Section 7 of the CFAA became the authority that authorized the Cooperative Fire Protection (CFP) programs. State Fire Assistance (SFA), formerly known as Rural Fire Prevention and Control, the cooperative wildfire protection program, became Section 7(b)2 and Volunteer Fire Assistance became Section 7(b)3. The name "Rural Fire Prevention and Control" was changed to "State Fire Assistance" during the FY-1999 budget process. The CFAA was amended by the Forest Stewardship Act of 1990, better known as the "1990 Farm Bill." This Act moved the CFP programs to Section 10 of the CFAA, so the authority for the VFA Program is now contained in Section 10(b)3 of the CFAA. This change did not alter the original language of the CFAA with respect to VFA.

The CFAA, as amended, is contained in Appendix A. Section 306(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, which provides for the 10,000 population limit for participation in the VFA Program, is contained in Appendix B.

The Rural Fire Situation...