Preparedness Grants can Fund Maintenance and User Fees

Did You Know that FEMA Grant Funds Extend Beyond Equipment Purchases?

Last November, Timothy Manning, FEMA’s Deputy Administrator of the National Preparedness Directorate (NPD) announced that prepared­ness grant funds can be used for fees associ­ated with equip­ment purchases.

An excerpt from the FEMA Grants Program Directorate’s bulletin released by his office:

“Effective [November 2o, 2009], the use of FEMA prepared­ness grant funds for mainte­nance contracts, warranties, repair or replace­ment costs, upgrades, and user fees are allow­able under all active and future grant awards, unless other­wise noted.”

How Does FEMA Define User Fees for Preparedness?

The FEMA infor­ma­tion bulletin offers this definition:

“User fees are viewed as costs for specific services required to maintain and provide contin­ued opera­tion of equip­ment or systems. An example would be the recur­ring service fees associ­ated with handheld radios or mobile data computers.”

Another example (okay, here comes the shame­less plug) would be satel­lite airtime services — to keep calls and data flowing to an OODAkit, BGAN termi­nal or satel­lite phone.