DHS to distribute $400 million for infrastructure protection
No changes have been made based on recent criticism of how anti-terrorism grants for urban areas were allocated.
Homeland Security Department officials on Thursday announced that about $400 million in fiscal 2006 funding will be made available to protect critical infrastructure sites across the country, including transit systems, seaports and chemical facilities, through the Infrastructure Protection Grant Program.
Speaking at a news conference, the officials made clear they have not made any changes to the grant program based on criticism the department received after its controversial announcement in May of anti-terrorism grants for urban areas. Those urban grant allocations included about a 40 percent reduction in funding for New York City and Washington, D.C.
Thursday's infrastructure protection grant announcement revealed that the New York and northern New Jersey metropolitan area will receive the largest share of funding for transit systems, with roughly $47 million for rail security and about $5.5 million for intra-city bus security.
Overall, the department will distribute about $136 million for transit systems across the country; $168 million for seaports; $48 million in so-called buffer zone protection grants; and $25 million in chemical sector grants.
"The infrastructure protection program provides the means to move forward in developing sustainable, risk-based critical infrastructure security initiatives for man-made and natural threats that could potentially have devastating impacts on the economy and communities throughout the nation," said DHS Undersecretary for Preparedness George Foresman. "These grant funds will provide tangible investments that extend beyond federal dollars to enhance America's preparedness."
Homeland Security officials said about the same amount of funding was made available through the program last year.
Some of the funding will go to programs specified by Congress, such as about $7.2 million for Amtrak and about $4.8 million to the American Trucking Associations for its highway watch program. But other grants will be awarded through a competitive application process, such as grants to seaports and some transit systems.
Applications are due to the department Aug. 4, and all awards will be made by the end of September. The department's Office of Grants and Training will review the applications. But unlike the urban area grant program, the department will not set up a panel of state homeland security officials to review the applications.
Foresman acknowledged that this year's grant program is being announced later than in previous years. He said the department took time to study lessons learned from the bombing of transit systems in London last year and Madrid in 2004, as well as to analyze the risks and vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure across the United States.
The department wants to make sure it is allocating funds to areas that need it, said Foresman, adding: "This is not an issue of who gets what."
Since its inception, the Infrastructure Protection Grant Program has provided more than $1.1 billion to sites across the country.