DHS awards billions of dollars each year to build and sustain targeted capabilities and strengthen state and local prevention efforts across the homeland security enterprise. Recent grant actions include:
- $1.3 billion in 2012 Preparedness Grants to assist state, local and tribal governments and the private sector in strengthening preparedness for acts of terrorism, major disasters and other emergencies.
- Over $2.9 billion in Gulf Coast rebuilding projects to assist communities as they continue to recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita—one in a series of Gulf Coast recovery projects that have totaled more than $5.1 billion since the start of the Obama Administration.
In 2011, DHS announced the country's first-ever National Preparedness Goal required under Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 8. The goal sets the vision for nationwide preparedness and identifies the core capabilities and targets necessary to achieve preparedness across five mission areas laid out under PPD 8: prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery.
To support this effort, DHS completed the first Strategic National Risk Assessment in 2011, which helped identify the range of 21st century risks that threaten national security, including weapons of mass destruction, cyber attacks, terrorism, pandemics, transnational threats and catastrophic natural disasters.
FY 2012 and 2013 Grant Funding
All fiscal year (FY) 2012 grant funding was tied to the five mission areas and core capabilities of the National Preparedness Goal. The highest risk cities in the country continue to face the most significant threats, and the FY 2012 homeland security grants focus the limited resources that were appropriated to mitigating and responding to evolving threats.
Beginning in FY 2012, all states receiving homeland security grant funding are required to develop and maintain a Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment, which includes the range of threats and hazards faced by an applicant. Through the THIRA process, states will compare existing capabilities with target capabilities to identify potential gaps and focus grant funding accordingly.
FEMA proposed a new vision for homeland security grants in the FY 2013 President’s budget that focuses on building and sustaining core capabilities associated with the five mission areas within the National Preparedness Goal that are readily deployable and cross-jurisdictional, helping to elevate nationwide preparedness.
Priorities: Terrorism Prevention and Countering Violent Extremism
DHS has continued to emphasize and prioritize law enforcement terrorism prevention activities throughout the FY 2012 grants that directly support state, local and tribal law enforcement efforts to understand, recognize, prepare for, prevent and respond to pre-operational activity and other crimes that are precursors or indicators of terrorist activity, in accordance with applicable privacy and civil rights and civil liberties protections.
For the first time in FY 2012, the risk formula used to determine grant allocations took into account threats from domestic violent extremists as well as international terrorist groups and those individuals inspired by terrorists abroad.
To address homegrown extremism, DHS has prioritized grant-funded prevention activities that directly support local homeland security efforts to understand, recognize, prepare for, prevent and respond to pre-operational activity and other crimes that are precursors or indicators of terrorist activity, in accordance with privacy, civil rights and civil liberties protections.