Homeland Security Watch

My February issue of the always informative Homeland Security Today arrived in the mail Wednesday.  It features the 2010 State and Local Managers’ Guide to Grants. [A digital version is available at this link ]

Michael Paddock wrote most of the grant-related articles in the magazine, providing an overview of what the headline writers called “The Homeland Security Funding Landscape.” In one of those articles, Michael summarizes 23 homeland security grant programs.  The programs account for almost 5 billion dollars of homeland security spending.

Do you know what the grant programs are?

To test your knowledge of how the 5 billion dollars can be spent, Homeland Security Watch happily presents the home/office edition of Match the Description to the Grant.

Below is a brief description of the 23 grant programs, followed by the program names.  The test is based on the homeland security grant program descriptions provided by Homeland Security Today.

(I’ll put the answers in the Comments section immediately following this post.)

As you look through the list, please consider having compassion for the people who have to work every day with the mountains of paper, electrons, and other data each program requires.

And compassion also for the millions of taxpayers footing the bill.

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Remember: match the grant program description with its name.

Score yourself as follows:

23 - 18 correct: you may be a grants manager,  someone who is a card carrying member of the homeland security industrial complex, or Michael Paddock

17 - 10 correct: you may work for state, local, tribal, or territorial government

10 - 5 correct: you may work for a non-DHS federal agency

Less than 5 correct: you may be an elected official or an academic

GRANT PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

1)           _______         Provides funding for allowable planning and equipment acquisition to increase the preparedness capabilities of jurisdictions responsible for the safety and security of communities surrounding high-priority pre-designated critical infrastructure and key resource assets.

2)           _______         Provides funds to owners and operators of transit systems to protect critical surface transportation infrastructure and the traveling public.

3)           _______         Provides supplemental state homeland security grant program funding to directly eligible tribes to help strengthen the nation against risks associated with potential terrorist attacks.

4)           _______         Support the integration of local emergency management, health and medical systems into a coordinated and sustained local response capability to a mass casualty incident.

5)           _______         Support for target hardening activities to nonprofit organizations that are deemed at high risk of a potential terrorist attack.

6)           _______         Provides funds to freight railroad carriers and owners and offerors of railroad cars to protect critical surface transportation infrastructure from acts of terrorism, major disasters and other emergencies.

7)           _______         Provides funds to build capabilities at the state, local, tribal and territorial levels and to implement the goals and objectives included in state homeland security strategies.

8)           _______         Enhanced cooperation and coordination among local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in a joint mission to secure the United States borders along routes of international borders.

9)           _______         Coordinate community involvement in emergency preparedness, planning, mitigation, response and recovery.

10)           _______         Provides funding to prevent terrorism by reducing fraud and improving the reliability and accuracy of personal identification documents that states and Territories issue.

11)           _______         Provides funding to states, territories and local and tribal governments to carry out initiatives to improve interoperable emergency communications.

12)           _______         Upgrade state and local public health jurisdictions’ preparedness in response to bioterrorism, outbreaks of infectious disease and other public health threats and emergencies.

13)           _______         Improve emergency management and preparedness capabilities by supporting flexible, sustainable, secure and interoperable EOCs.

14)           _______         Provides funds to states, territories, federally recognized Indian tribal governments and communities for hazard mitigation planning and implementation of mitigation projects prior to a disaster.

15)           _______         Provides funds to Amtrak to protect critical surface transportation infrastructure and the traveling public from acts of terrorism, major disasters and other emergencies.

16)           _______         Enhance catastrophic incident preparedness in selected high-risk, high consequence urban areas and their surrounding regions.

17)           _______         Provides resources to assist state and local governments to sustain and enhance all-hazards emergency management capabilities.

18)           _______         Improve surge capacity and enhanced community and hospital preparedness for public health emergencies.

19)           _______         Provides grant funding to port areas for the protection of critical port infrastructure from terrorism.

20)           _______         The primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions.

21)           _______         Intended to assist participating jurisdictions in developing integrated regional systems for prevention, protection, response and recovery.

22)           _______         Helps fire departments and non-affiliated EMS organizations meet their firefighting and emergency response needs.

23)           _______         Assist operators of fixed route intercity and charter bus services serving the nation’s highest risk metropolitan areas and obtaining the resources required to support security measures.

2010 GRANT PROGRAMS

a.           Intercity Passenger Rail

b.           Assistance To Firefighters Grant Program

c.           Transit Security Grant Program

d.           Operation Stonegarden

e.           Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program

f.           Driver’s License Security Grant Program

g.           Buffer Zone Protection Program

h.           State Homeland Security Program

i.           Hospital Emergency Preparedness Program

j.           Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program

k.           Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreement

l.           Port Security Grant Program

m.           Freight Rail Security Grant Program

n.           Intercity Bus Security Grant Program

o.           Citizen Corps Program

p.           Emergency Management Performance Grant

q.           Urban Areas Security Initiative: Nonprofit Security Grant Program

r.           Interoperable Emergency Communications Grant Program

s.           Emergency Operations Center Grant Program

t.           Metropolitan Medical Response System Program

u.           Urban Areas Security Initiative

v.           Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program

w.           Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grants