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selected programmatic area, applicants may develop a comprehensive program and include in their application as many of the eligible activities as necessary to address their needs. For example, if a fire department determines that it has needs in the area of operations, that fire department could apply for any one of the activities, or any combination of activities, or all of the activities listed within that program. If a department wants a vehicle, it would apply under the vehicle program. We anticipate 20,000 to 25,000 fire departments will apply for assistance. Of these, we anticipate awarding approximately 9,000 grants. However, due to the length of time that it will take us to make these awards, we anticipate that approximately half of these awards will be made before September 30,2004. We anticipate the balance of the awards will be made before March 31,2005. We will select a sufficient number of awardees from this one application period to obligate all of the funding available this year. Awards will be announced over several months as the decisions are made. Awards will not be made in any specified order, i.e., not by State, or by program, or any other characteristic. The law requires a certain distribution of grant funds between career departments and combination/volunteer fire departments. Specifically, we must ensure that fire departments that have either all-volunteer forces of firefighting personnel or combined forces of volunteer and career firefighting personnel receive a portion of the total grant funding that is not less than the proportion of the United States population that those departments protect. According to a 2003 survey by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), volunteer and combination departments protect 55 percent of the population of the United States and career departments protect 45 percent of the