Federal grants help fire departments stop falls in older adults' homes
S. 5466 — FASTER Act · Filed by Angus King (I-ME) · Introduced Sep 23, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill lets FEMA give money to fire departments. The money pays for home safety fixes, smoke detectors, and health tracking systems. The bill gives $1 to $7 million each year until 2035.
Who it affects
Older adults get help to make their homes safer. Fire departments get money to start new programs. Both career and volunteer fire departments can get grants.
One thing to notice
Fire departments must pay 25 to 65 percent of the cost themselves. After three years, the federal government pays less money.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Sep 23, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 23, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- FEMA — The federal agency that helps during emergencies and disasters.
- grants — Money the government gives to groups to do specific work.
- smoke detectors — Devices that warn people when there is fire or smoke.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (11,150 characters) on Oct 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal grants help fire departments stop falls in older adults' homes” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5466/simple Report an error
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