WASHINGTON—DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson today announced the release of FY 2014 Funding Opportunity Announcements for six DHS preparedness grant programs totaling over $1.6 billion. The homeland security grants assist states, urban areas, tribal and territorial governments and nonprofit organizations, as well as the private sector to strengthen our nation’s ability to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies in support of the National Preparedness Goal and the National Preparedness System.
“The FY 2014 homeland security grants demonstrate the Department’s strong partnership at all levels of government and across the whole community to address a complex threat environment,” said Secretary Johnson. “The positive impact of these grant programs can be seen in neighborhoods across the country, and this year’s homeland security preparedness grant funding will further strengthen the nation’s ability to respond to a range of threats, disasters, and incidents.”
Within the requirements of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2014, the FY 2014 grant guidance will continue to focus on the nation’s highest risk areas, including urban areas that face the most significant threats. For FY 2014, the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) will enhance regional preparedness by funding 39 high-threat, high-density urban areas -- increasing the number of UASI funded urban areas from FY 2013 and funding the highest number of urban areas nation-wide since FY 2010.
Consistent with previous grant guidance, dedicated funding is provided for law enforcement and terrorism prevention throughout the country to prepare for, prevent and respond to pre-operational activity and other crimes that are precursors or indicators of terrorist activity.
For FY 2014, the department shifted away from identifying program-specific priorities and instead directs grantees to prioritize grant funds to increase a jurisdiction’s capabilities based on the grantees’ capability targets set through the annual Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment and capability gaps identified through the annual State Preparedness Report.
Grantees are encouraged to utilize grant funding to maintain and sustain current critical core capabilities through investments in training and exercises, updates to current planning and procedures, and lifecycle replacement of equipment. New capabilities that are built using homeland security grant funding must be deployable if needed to support regional and national efforts. All capabilities being built or sustained must have a clear linkage to the core capabilities in the National Preparedness Goal.
The FY 2014 grant guidance incorporates input from DHS’s state, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector partners, and details specific steps undertaken by DHS to improve the ability of state, local, and tribal partners to apply for and utilize grant funding.
Preparedness Grant Program Allocations for Fiscal Year 2014:
Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) --provides more than $1 billion for states and urban areas to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism and other threats.
The 9/11 Act requires states to dedicate 40 percent of the combined SHSP and UASI funds to law enforcement terrorism prevention activities.
Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program (THSGP) -- provides $10 million to eligible tribal nations to implement preparedness initiatives to help strengthen the nation against risk associated with potential terrorist attacks and other hazards.
Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) -- provides $13 million to support target hardening and other physical security enhancements for nonprofit organizations that are at high risk of a terrorist attack and located within one of the FY 2014 UASI-eligible urban areas.
Intercity Passenger Rail - Amtrak (IPR) Program --provides more than $10 million to protect critical surface transportation infrastructure and the traveling public from acts of terrorism and increase the resilience of the Amtrak rail system.
Port Security Grant Program (PSGP) -- provides more than $100 million to help protect critical port infrastructure from terrorism, enhance maritime domain awareness, improve port-wide maritime security risk management, and maintain or reestablish maritime security mitigation protocols that support port recovery and resiliency capabilities.
Transit Security Grant Program (TSGP) --provides more than $90 million to owners and operators of transit systems to protect critical surface transportation and the traveling public from acts of terrorism and to increase the resilience of transit infrastructure.
All preparedness Funding Opportunity Announcements can be found at www.grants.gov. The Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) applications, announced on March 10, 2014, are due no later than April 9, 2014. All other preparedness grant applications are due no later than May 23, 2014. Final submissions must be made through the Non-Disaster Grants system located at https://portal.fema.gov.
Further information on DHS’s preparedness grant programs is available at www.dhs.gov and http://www.fema.gov/grants.
