Homeland Security to merge offices aiding states

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge will soon announce a merger of offices that aid state and local governments in an effort to better administer billions of dollars in grants to first responders, officials said Wednesday.

The department will consolidate the Office of Domestic Preparedness and the Office of State and Local Government Coordination into a new Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness, ODP Director Suzanne Mencer told House lawmakers. She said a 60-day review of the proposed merger has been completed, and Ridge is expected to announce its official implementation "any day now."

"The consolidation will enable the department to evaluate programs more accurately, exercise greater federal oversight, and ensure that government-provided resources are dispersed quickly and used to maximum efficiency," she said. "This decision will benefit states and localities by providing them with a unified and coordinated means of assistance and support."

The merger will provide a "one-stop shop" for state and local governments to access grants by placing 25 state and local assistance programs and initiatives into a single office. It is expected to eliminate duplication and link funding to strategic plans that states recently submitted to DHS.

A Homeland Security official said the merger would not result in staffing changes. He added that personnel in both offices have been working closely together to make the transition smooth.

On Wednesday, lawmakers criticized the process by which first responder grants are doled out.

"Our concerns at the federal level [involve] the basis for allocating these funds," said Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "The basis is not [an assessment of] risk or need. Rather, these dollars are being allocated in accordance with a congressionally mandated arbitrary political formula."

Cox released a report on Tuesday that found most grants are being made without a "rigorous assessment" of risk. That problem, coupled with the absence of clear federal guidelines, has led to questionable uses of preparedness grants at the state and local levels, the report found.

The report concluded that DHS awarded homeland security grants in a timely manner to states, but almost one-third of states allocated money among internal jurisdictions without regard to need or risk. Those states that took these factors into account did not follow a standard approach.

The report also found that DHS has not issued terrorism preparedness standards to guide the spending of funds, causing many instances of questionable expenditures. Only a small amount of federal grants have been spent to date due to a lack of advance planning and other administrative obstacles at the local level.

Rep. Jim Turner of Texas, the Homeland Security Committee's ranking Democrat, criticized DHS for not yet compiling a national vulnerability assessment or a list of essential capabilities needed at the state and local levels.

"I think the frustration that many of us are feeling is that we're spending millions of dollars in a very unfocused, misdirected way, and nobody really has settled on who is in charge," Turner said.

Mencer highlighted the steps the Office of Domestic Preparedness has taken to improve homeland security at the state and local levels, but acknowledged the challenges faced in distributing grants. "It is the first time that we've seen this much money come this quickly with the expectation that it be spent so rapidly," she said.