Lawmakers support changes in homeland security grant formula

House lawmakers expressed support Thursday for overhauling how homeland security grants are distributed to state and local jurisdictions, but some questioned how the department will manage the mammoth effort.

Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the department's proposal to alter its funding formula is "abstract."

"Whose responsibility is it within DHS to lead the risk analysis and to make funding recommendations based on it?" Cox asked during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Science and Technology.

The department wants to begin awarding grants in 2006 through a funding formula based on risk, vulnerabilities and needs, said Matt Mayer, acting executive director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness. The new funding formula would apply to the State Homeland Security Grant Program.

The existing formula, mandated under the 2001 USA Patriot Act, requires each state to get 0.75 percent of total SHSGP funding and each territory to receive 0.25 percent of overall funding, with the remainder distributed to areas based on population.

Under the new formula, each state and territory would get a baseline of 0.25 percent of overall funding, and the remainder would be distributed to areas based on risk, threat, vulnerability and needs.

Mayer told Government Executive that the department is still defining exactly how the new formula would work. He said his office will continue to administer the grant program, but risk and vulnerability assessments would be done by the DHS Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection directorate and the FBI.

"It is really a team effort to come up with what we think is a good, sophisticated formula that will get us to a point where we're understanding risk and threat well," he said.

In written testimony to the subcommittee, Mayer said funding allocations also would be based on state homeland security strategies.

DHS plans to issue the National Preparedness Goal by the end of March, which is required by Homeland Security Presidential Directive-8. The plan will lay out the minimum national requirements that all states must meet "to prevent and respond to threatened or actual domestic terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies."

Mayer said states will be required to update their existing homeland security strategies in order to apply to the grant program in 2006.

Some lawmakers, however, criticized the department's fiscal 2006 budget request for underfunding firefighters. The department requests $500 million for the Fire Investment and Response Enhancement Act program, which is $215 million less than Congress appropriated for it for fiscal 2005. Additionally, the department's budget cuts all funding from the Fire and Emergency Response Firefighters Act, which authorizes funds for localities to hire more firefighters.

Rep. Curt Weldon, D-Pa., asked the department to consider that it is creating an impression that it does not care about firefighters.

"I could imagine if there was a proposal to eliminate the FBI training center at Quantico [Virginia], what an uprising it would cause," Weldon said.

Mayer said the department believes it is providing "adequate" funding to firefighters.