States Get $165 Million In Grants For Hazard Response
The Department of Homeland Security’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate, known as FEMA, has provided $165 million in grants to help state and local governments better prepare to respond to all hazards preparedness activities and emergency management.
The funds are a result of a significant increase in funding for the Emergency Management Performance Grants (EMPG) program from the FY ’03 budget.
The EMPG program provide states the flexibility to allocate funds according to risk vulnerabilities and to address the most urgent state and local needs in all hazard mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
The effectiveness of state and local responder organizations is critical to the success of all aspects of the Homeland Security mission, but especially to disaster response operations. Local emergency managers plan, train, exercise and provide the facilities needed to coordinate all emergency services in response to major incidents. They also assume the leading role in mitigation program activities, those designed to reduce the vulnerability of communities to all hazards.
“The $165 million to state and locals for all hazards preparedness represents a 40 percent increase from FY ’02 EMPG funding,” said Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response. “These grants are further evidence of this administration’s commitment to state and local governments for all hazards emergency preparedness efforts.”
The EMPG program, which was first awarded in FY 2000, was intended to consolidate funding streams that FEMA provides to state emergency management departments and agencies.