The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is seeking applications for the Pool Safely Grant Program, which assists state and local governments in reducing deaths and injuries from drowning and drain entrapment incidents in pools and spas. CPSC will award up to a total of $3.5 million in two-year grants to qualifying jurisdictions. The grant program is an essential part of the CPSC’s national campaign to prevent drowning and drain entrapment.
The grant program is authorized through the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act (VGB Act), which seeks to provide state, local and tribal governments with assistance for education, training and enforcement of pool safety requirements, as well as anti-drowning education. This child safety law has helped reduce the risk of drowning and drain entrapment by requiring public pools and spas to install new safety drain covers and through federal grants and education programs to encourage states and localities to require residential pools and spas to utilize physical barriers, such as a fence completely surrounding the pool, with self-closing, self-latching gates.
Since the Act’s passage in 2007, CPSC has provided nearly $6 million in funding to 24 recipients.
“I encourage states, local governments and others to apply for these funds to make pools and spas safer in their communities,” said CPSC Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric. “The Virginia Graeme Baker Act grants can save lives through enforcement of pool safety laws, informing the public about entrapment dangers and safety education to prevent drowning.”
“Drowning prevention and pool safety issues have been policy priorities my whole career, and I’ll continue to help stop these preventable tragedies through laws like the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act. This legislation creates lifesaving grants across the country to increase the layers of protection for all our children, and I am extremely proud that it was reauthorized in the FY23 Omnibus, and extended eligibility for the grants to Indian Tribes. I will always carry the drowning prevention banner, and take comfort in knowing that our continued work means one more child’s life can be saved,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) who authored and led the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act in Congress. It was later signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007.
Grant applicants must be a state, local government, Indian Tribe or U. S. Territory that has an enacted or amended a law that meets the requirements of the VGB Act (15 U.S.C. 8001), sections 1405 and 1406.
Prospective applicants can review the solicitation on Grants.gov, under grant opportunity CPSC-23-001. Applications will be accepted through April 30, 2023.