The Federal Safety Net Is Unraveling: Grant Freezes, DOGE Cuts, and What Fire Departments Stand to Lose

A Year of Disruption

In 30 years of fire service leadership, I have never seen federal support for fire departments face as many simultaneous threats as it has in the past 12 months. Grant freezes. Agency restructuring. Program eliminations. A partial government shutdown. And a state-level pension raid that, if it succeeds, will set a precedent that should alarm every firefighter in the country.

This is not a partisan analysis. It is a factual accounting of what has happened to the federal programs that the American fire service depends on, what those changes mean for departments on the ground, and what fire service leaders need to do about it.

The FEMA Grant Freeze: A Timeline

The most immediately disruptive event for fire departments began on January 27, 2025, when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) froze all federal loans and grants, including FEMA fire department grants. The freeze encompassed both the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) programs — the two primary federal funding streams for local fire departments.

What followed was a months-long legal and bureaucratic battle:

January 28, 2025 — A federal judge temporarily blocked the funding freeze.
January 29, 2025 — OMB rescinded the freeze memo.
February 28, 2025 — FEMA reimposed a "manual review" process for all grant payments — effectively a second freeze. Financial holds were placed on all open awards across fiscal years 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
March 6, 2025 — A coalition of states won a preliminary injunction blocking the freeze.
April 4, 2025 — A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered FEMA to "immediately cease the challenged manual review process."
April 21, 2025 — FEMA confirmed that fire service grants were progressing and standard processing had resumed.

For nearly three months, fire departments across the country could not access grant funds they had been awarded. A fire gear manufacturer confirmed that multiple customers were blocked from using AFG funds to purchase equipment during the freeze period. Departments that had budgeted around expected federal reimbursements found themselves in immediate fiscal distress.

The Budget Numbers

To understand what's at stake, consider the scale of federal fire service funding:

AFG and SAFER have collectively injected approximately $16 billion into local fire departments since their creation (AFG in 2001, SAFER in 2005). For fiscal year 2023, both programs were funded at $360 million each. For fiscal years 2024 and 2025, both were reduced to $324 million — a 10% cut.

The FY2026 budget proposal, released May 2, 2025, holds AFG and SAFER flat at $324 million each. But the broader fire service funding picture is more alarming:

Rural Development Community Facilities program — Eliminated entirely. This $721 million program funded fire station construction, apparatus purchases, and ambulance acquisitions for rural departments that have no other capital funding source.
Volunteer Fire Capacity Grants — Eliminated. The $21 million program that supported volunteer departments was zeroed out.
State Fire Assistance and Volunteer Fire Assistance — Zeroed out. A $95 million reduction affecting state-level fire programs.
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) — Eliminated entirely. This program served over 1,200 local governments and was used by many for fire service infrastructure.
SAMHSA Mental Health Programs — $1.065 billion cut. These programs fund substance abuse and mental health services used by firefighters dealing with the psychological toll of the job. For departments addressing firefighter suicide and mental health, this cut removes a critical support structure.

The Fire Grants and Safety Act, signed July 9, 2024, reauthorized AFG, SAFER, and the USFA through FY2028. The law authorizes a combined $750 million per year. But authorization is not appropriation. Congress can authorize any amount; what matters is what it actually funds. And the trend line is moving in the wrong direction.

DOGE and the Fire Service

The Department of Government Efficiency's impact on the fire service has been primarily indirect but significant. The cuts have targeted the federal agencies that support firefighter safety, research, and health — functions that departments themselves cannot replicate.

NIOSH and the Firefighter Fatality Investigation Program

On March 27, 2025, HHS announced a consolidation of 28 divisions into 15, moving NIOSH from the CDC to a new entity. On April 1, 2025, approximately 870 of NIOSH's 1,300 staff received layoff notices. Among them: seven of eight staff members of the Firefighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP).

The FFFIPP investigates line-of-duty firefighter deaths and issues recommendations to prevent recurrence. It is the only federal program that performs this function. When a firefighter dies in the line of duty, FFFIPP investigators examine the incident, the equipment, the procedures, and the institutional factors that contributed to the death. Their reports have driven changes in NFPA standards, department operating procedures, and apparatus design.

The layoffs were partially reversed on May 13, but the signal was clear: the program that investigates why firefighters die is not considered essential by the current administrative structure.

The National Firefighter Registry for Cancer

The National Firefighter Registry for Cancer, which had enrolled over 23,800 firefighters, went offline after the April 1 layoffs. The registry is the first systematic effort to track cancer incidence across the American fire service — data essential for understanding the cancer epidemic that has become the leading cause of line-of-duty death. Staff were later reinstated and the registry came back online, but the disruption raised serious questions about the continuity of long-term health research.

The National Fire Academy

On March 7, 2025, all in-person training at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland, was canceled, citing "program evaluation." Training did not resume until May 22, 2025. Classes were canceled again during the February 2026 DHS shutdown.

The NFA is the only national-level training institution for fire officers. Its programs in executive leadership, incident management, and specialized topics are not available at equivalent quality or scale from any other source. Every week the NFA is dark represents lost training capacity that cannot be recovered.

EMR-ISAC Closure

Effective June 1, 2025, USFA closed the Emergency Management and Response — Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC). This program distributed critical infrastructure protection information and threat analysis to first responders via its "InfoGram" bulletin. In an era of increasing technology integration and cybersecurity threats to emergency services, eliminating the primary threat information channel for first responders is a decision with consequences that may not be immediately visible but will be felt.

The DHS Shutdown

A partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security began in mid-February 2026. During the shutdown:

FEMA cannot process payments for non-disaster grants — meaning AFG and SAFER reimbursements are halted.
National Fire Academy classes are canceled.
Reimbursements for ongoing fire recovery efforts, including the Eaton and Palisades fire recovery in California, are paused.

Approximately 84% of FEMA's ~22,000 staff are excepted or exempt, but they work without pay during the shutdown. The shutdown compounds the disruption from the earlier grant freeze, extending the period during which fire departments cannot access federal funds they have been awarded.

Washington State: The Pension Raid

While federal threats dominate the national conversation, a state-level action in Washington State deserves attention from every firefighter in America.

On February 13, 2026, the Washington State House passed House Bill 2034 in a 55–39 party-line vote. The bill targets the Law Enforcement Officers' and Firefighters' (LEOFF) Plan 1 pension system — a closed plan with no new members since 1977, serving retirees mostly in their 70s and 80s.

The plan is funded at approximately 150–160% of its obligations. HB 2034 would terminate the existing plan, replace it with a "Restated LEOFF" plan that preserves benefits, and redirect approximately $4 to $4.5 billion in surplus to state accounts. Of that surplus, $569 million would go to the Climate Commitment Account, with the remainder going to a Pension Funding Stabilization Account.

The bill had a Senate hearing scheduled for February 26, 2026. The LEOFF 1 Coalition has warned it will pursue legal action if the bill is enacted, citing potential IRS violations that could threaten the fund's tax-exempt status.

Why should firefighters outside Washington care? Because a successful pension surplus raid in one state creates a template for others. Many public safety pension systems are well-funded. If the precedent is established that surplus funds can be redirected to general state spending, the security of every public safety pension in the country becomes contingent on legislative discipline rather than legal protection.

The Tariff Factor

Federal funding disruptions arrive at a moment when fire departments are already facing sharply rising apparatus costs. Tariffs have added another layer of pressure.

According to industry reporting, aluminum prices rose from $1.18 per pound in January 2024 to $1.72 per pound by June 2025 — a 45% increase in 18 months. One fire gear retailer experienced 24 manufacturer price increases in March 2025 alone. A fire department in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, faced a $6,235 tariff to import a single SCBA decontamination unit from Canada. Seven million dollars' worth of fire hose sat in Canada unable to be delivered to U.S. fire departments due to the 25% tariff on Canadian goods.

When grant funds are frozen, budgets are cut, and the cost of every piece of equipment is rising due to tariffs, the compounding effect on department readiness is severe.

What Fire Service Leaders Must Do

The policy environment is hostile. That is the reality. Waiting for conditions to improve is not a strategy. Fire service leaders at every level need to act.

For Chiefs and Administrators

Diversify funding sources. Departments that rely heavily on a single federal grant program are vulnerable. Explore state grants, private foundations, corporate partnerships, and community fundraising as supplements to federal funding.
Build cash reserves. The grant freeze demonstrated that federal reimbursements can be delayed for months without warning. Departments need operating reserves sufficient to weather extended payment delays.
Document everything. Every impact of funding disruption — delayed equipment purchases, deferred maintenance, unfilled positions, cancelled training — needs to be documented. These records are essential for congressional advocacy and future grant applications.

For Union and Association Leaders

Engage Congress directly. The Fire Grants and Safety Act reauthorization succeeded because fire service organizations advocated effectively. That same effort is needed now to defend appropriations levels, protect NIOSH research programs, and keep the NFA operational.
Monitor pension legislation. Washington State's HB 2034 is a warning. Every state with a well-funded public safety pension system should be monitoring legislative activity for similar proposals.
Build coalitions. The fire service shares interests with law enforcement, EMS, and emergency management on many of these funding issues. Joint advocacy is more effective than siloed efforts.

For Individual Firefighters

Know what you're losing. The programs being cut or disrupted — FFFIPP, the cancer registry, the NFA, EMR-ISAC — exist to protect you. Understanding what they do makes it easier to articulate why they matter.
Contact your representatives. Congressional offices track constituent contacts. A letter from a firefighter about how a grant freeze affected their department carries weight. As with the CSB funding fight, elected officials respond to direct, specific accounts from the people affected.

The Bottom Line

The federal safety net for fire departments was never lavish. AFG and SAFER together represent a modest investment relative to the scope of the fire problem in this country. But that modest investment has been consequential — $16 billion over two decades in direct support for hiring, equipment, and training.

What we are witnessing is not a single policy change but a convergence of pressures: grant freezes, budget cuts, agency restructuring, program eliminations, a government shutdown, and rising costs driven by tariffs and market consolidation. Individually, each is manageable. Together, they represent a fundamental challenge to the capacity of American fire departments to maintain the level of service their communities expect.

The fire service has survived lean times before. It will survive this. But survival and adequacy are not the same thing. The question is not whether fire departments will continue to exist. It is whether they will have the resources to do the job safely and effectively — for their communities and for the firefighters who serve them.

Policy matters. Funding matters. And right now, both are moving in the wrong direction.

Sources and Further Reading

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of USA Fire Departments (USFireDept.com). This content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as official policy, endorsement, or recommendation.