WASHINGTON— Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced final allocations for $550 million for seven Fiscal Year 2022 competitive preparedness grant programs. These allocations, together with the almost $1.5 billion in non-competitive grant funding announced earlier this year, total more than $2 billion in FY 2022 to help prepare our nation against man-made threats and natural disasters.
The grant programs provide funding to state, local, tribal and territorial governments, nonprofit agencies and the private sector to build and sustain capabilities to prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from acts of terrorism and other disasters. The total amount for each grant program is set by Congress and the allocations are made by the Secretary.
“As the threats to the homeland evolve, so too must the grant programs intended to prepare communities for those threats,” said Secretary Mayorkas. “This year, DHS will prioritize six critical areas, including cybersecurity, soft targets and crowded places, intelligence and information sharing, domestic violent extremism, community preparedness and resilience, and election security. These grants will help to improve the nation’s readiness in preparing, responding to, and recovering from terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies.”
Grant recipients under the State Homeland Security Program and Urban Area Security Initiative will be required to dedicate a minimum of 30% of their awards across these six priority areas. Twelve percent is required through minimum spend amounts for four priority areas, and recipients have flexibility on how to allocate the remaining 18% across the six priority areas: cybersecurity (no minimum spend); soft target and crowded places (3%); information and intelligence sharing (3%); domestic violent extremism (3%); community preparedness and resilience (3%); and election security (no minimum spend). After extensive consultation with grantees leading up to this announcement, DHS is focused on balancing the need to invest in high priority areas with giving jurisdictions the flexibility to make prioritization decisions based on their own assessments of their needs.
Preparedness Grant Program Allocations for Fiscal Year 2022
The following grants are competitive, with awards announced today:
Operation Stonegarden: provides $90 million to enhance cooperation and coordination among state, local, tribal, territorial, and federal law enforcement agencies to jointly enhance security along the United States land and water borders.
Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program: provides $15 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: provides $250 million to support target hardening and other physical security enhancements for nonprofit organizations that are at high risk of a terrorist attack. This year, $125 million is provided to nonprofits in Urban Area Security Initiative-designated areas, and $125 million is provided to nonprofits outside those designated urban areas located in any state or territory.
Port Security Grant Program: provides $100 million to help protect critical port infrastructure from terrorism, enhance maritime domain awareness, improve port-wide maritime security risk management, and maintain or re-establish maritime security mitigation protocols that support port recovery and resiliency capabilities.
Transit Security Grant Program: provides $93 million to owners and operators of public transit systems to protect critical surface transportation and the traveling public from acts of terrorism and to increase the resilience of transit infrastructure.
Intercity Bus Security Grant Program: provides $2 million to owners and operators of intercity bus systems to protect surface transportation infrastructure and the traveling public from acts of terrorism and to increase the resilience of transit infrastructure.
The following non-competitive grants were awarded earlier this year to recipients based on a number of factors:
State Homeland Security Program: provides $415 million to support the implementation of risk-driven, capabilities-based state homeland security strategies to address capability targets. Awards are based on statutory minimums and relative risk as determined by DHS/FEMA’s risk methodology.
Urban Area Security Initiative: provides $615 million to enhance regional preparedness and capabilities in 31 high-threat, high-density areas. Awards are based on relative risk as determined by risk methodology.
Emergency Management Performance Grant: including the funding provided under the American Rescue Plan Act, provides more than $405.1 million to assist state, local, tribal, and territorial governments in enhancing and sustaining all-hazards emergency management capabilities. Relative population is considered.
Intercity Passenger Rail: provides $10 million to Amtrak to protect critical surface transportation infrastructure and the traveling public from acts of terrorism and increase the resilience of the Amtrak rail system. Award made per congressional direction.
Emergency Operations Center Security Grant Program: provides more than $49 million to improve emergency management and preparedness capabilities by supporting flexible, sustainable, secure, strategically located, and fully interoperable emergency operations centers (EOCs) with a focus on addressing identified deficiencies and needs. EOCGP had not been appropriated as a grant program in more than 10 years.
Further information on preparedness grant programs is available at www.dhs.gov and http://www.fema.gov/grants.