Increased funding for Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program

[bebling10 (Bradley Ebling)]

I would like to see additional funding to fire/EMS departments, especially when it comes to the capital items like apparatus and buildings. Like everything else, inflation has increased the prices of fire apparatus almost double. A few years ago, you could get a pumper for 650,000. I just seen a department say on social media that they signed for around 1,000,000 now. This is the same with aerial devices. A few years ago, you could purchase one new around 1m-1.3m now you are looking at 2m+. Another problem is after Covid. Delay times at factories are now making a year to two process into about 4,5 or even 6 years. So not only is this a financial stress to the departments but they also have be planning years in advance just to put a truck on order. I reside in PA and I think we are blessed with what we have. But on social media, there are a lot of departments in the south and midwest that aren’t as blessed and are running outdate trucks from 70s and 80s. A lot of the country still relies on the smaller volunteer departments.