The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will award $1.6 billion through nine separate grant programs to reinforce preparedness and resilience measures against severe weather and other disastrous events.
The federal funding injection aligns with the administration’s efforts to promote self-sufficiency and reliance during emergencies. With the backing of FEMA dollars, states, communities and other qualifying entities will implement their own measures to support security and resilience against any number of incidents, including floods, fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and cyber and terrorist attacks.
Programs distributing funding as part of FEMA’s recent announcement include the following:
- Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) – $584.3 million.
- State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) – $394.3 million.
- Emergency Management Performance Grant Program (EMPGP) – $337.3 million.
- Operation Stonegarden (OPSG) – $85.5 million.
- Emergency Operations Center Grant Program (EOCGP) – $83 million.
- Next Generation Warning System Grant Program (NGWSGP) – $48 million.
- Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program (THSGP) – $14.3 million.
- Intercity Passenger Rail Program (IPRP) – $9.5 million.
- Intercity Bus Security Grant Program (IBSGP) – $1.9 million.
The Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) – comprised of UASI, SHSP and OPSG – makes up the lion’s share of the $1.9 billion FEMA allotment.
UASI allocates funding to support urban areas to defend against attacks in high-threat, high-density regions. The funding will enable recipients to improve and sustain its capabilities for preventing, protecting against, preparing for and responding to acts of terrorism. These areas will be able to further plan, organize, equip, train and exercise according to their individual needs for mitigating infrastructural and operational risks.
Urban areas receiving the largest sums through UASI include:
- New York-White Plains, New York State – $142.5 million.
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif. – $34 million.
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va-Md.-W.V. – $32.2 million.
- Newark-Jersey City-New Brunswick, N.J.-Pa. – $32.1 million.
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Ill.-In.-Wis. – $31 million.
SHSP prioritizes state- and territory-level efforts to guard against terrorist attacks or other comparable incidents. The funding will support implementation of homeland security strategies designed to address these events through planning, organization, equipment, training and exercises.
States and territories selected to receive the largest amounts through SHSP include:
- New York – $59.2 million.
- California – $52.4 million.
- Texas – $24.5 million.
- Florida – $15.1 million.
- New Jersey – $14.8 million.
The EMPGP is the largest program delivering funding outside of the holistic HSGP provisions. The program will provide state, local, tribal and territorial governments with the financial assistance needed to implement emergency management activities for prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery initiatives.
States and territories receiving the largest amounts for emergency management initiatives include:
- California – $25.6 million.
- Texas – $21.1 million.
- Florida – $16.3 million.
- New York – $14.3 million.
- Pennsylvania – $10.2 million.
OPSG provides the funding needed to further cement law enforcement efforts to improve security along land and water borders. State, local, tribal, territorial and federal law enforcement agencies will benefit from awards to secure ingress points along the Mexico and Canada international borders and international water borders. Texas will receive the largest singular award – $34.8 million – followed by California’s $13.4 million award and Arizona’s $12 million award.
The EOCGP directly provides the funding to enable maintenance and development of EOCs to serve as critical disaster response hubs. States receiving the largest grants through the program include:
- California – $10.3 million.
- Tennessee – $6 million.
- Georgia – $5.8 million.
- Florida – $5.7 million.
- Massachusetts – $5.2 million.
The NGWSGP represents the last major investment delivered through FEMA’s latest disaster preparation program set. A total of $48 million will be used to help states, territories and tribal nations modernize and reinforce their public alert and warning capabilities. Funding will primarily address public emergency communications, close technology gaps and advance policies and procedures to protect residents.
A selection of projects with the largest awards include:
- The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency will receive $10.6 million to modernize and expand outdoor sirens, broadcast relay and critical facility datacasting, public television fiber-interconnected networks, weather radios and accessible alert devices.
- The Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope in Alaska will spend $7.3 million on various projects and technologies, including IPAWS alert origination, redundant internet, satellite, radio, local-network pathways, outdoor sirens, critical-facility visual and audio endpoints, regional training, testing and cybersecurity.
- The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management will use its $7.2 million share for needs assessments, distribution backbone, rural and communication station relays, country origination modernization and tribal nation alerting integration.
- The California Office of Emergency Services will receive $6.5 million for local alerting and authority support and statewide training, exercises and tests.
- The Maryland Department of Emergency Management will spend $4.6 million to modernize and expand datacasting and EAS and integrate sub-grants.
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels
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