Years ago we had a series of spats with the Assistance To Firefighters Grants (AFG) program contact person, for reasons detailed in “Blast Bureaucrats for Inept Interpretations of Federal Regulations* and “FEMA and Grants.gov Together at Last,” both of which have a lot of complaining but also have a deeper lesson: it pays to make noise when federal and other bureaucrats aren’t doing their jobs. If nothing else, the noise makes it more likely that those bureaucrats will do their jobs right in the future.*
For us, that future is now. A new AFG RFP was just issued. While it has a short 30-day deadline, it appeared in the Grants.gov database in a timely manner. Now fire departments that want to apply will have a fair shot. And pretty much every fire department should apply: there are 2,500 grants available. I don’t know how many fire departments there are in the U.S., but I do know that 2,500 is appreciable portion of them and that 2,500 isn’t a typo—at least on our part.
* Plus, complaining is sometimes satisfying.