McAuliffe announces $5.7 million in homeland security grant awards

Governor Terry McAuliffe announced Monday that $5.7 million in federal funds will be awarded for 99 projects to enhance emergency preparedness and security throughout the Commonwealth.

The Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) will administer the funds to support the ability of local governments to sustain a wide array of emergency preparedness and security operations, equipment replacement, training, planning and exercise programs.

“Whether it was the Pentagon on 9/11, Hurricane Isabel in 2003, and Snowmageddon in 2010, our first responders and local law enforcement agencies have been essential in protecting Virginians each and every time they are called on,” said Governor McAuliffe. “These grants will provide vital support to communities across the Commonwealth, and I am confident that they will go a long way toward building a stronger and more resilient Virginia.”

Governor McAuliffe’s public safety and homeland security team initiated a stakeholder-driven process to determine how the grants would be allocated this year.

“An inclusive grant process, where all stakeholders are involved, is the key to understanding the security needs of a community,” said Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security, Brian Moran. “We will continue to build upon the foundation we have laid with these grants in our efforts to keep the citizens of our Commonwealth safe and secure.”

Old Dominion University assisted with scoring the graded proposals, based on a benefit-cost ratio, as requested by the public safety stakeholders.

VDEM received 143 grant requests totaling more than $16 million. Only $2.6 million was available to allocate to localities from this year’s State Homeland Security Program (SHSP). Additionally, more than $555,000 was re-programmed from the National Capital Region Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) and Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness grant programs to fund 7 projects.

“Federal grants for emergency management and homeland security to Virginia have been cut nearly 70 percent since 2008, requiring us to be more strategic in how money is allocated in order to sustain the basic response capability that has been built up since 9/11,” said Dr. Jeff Stern, Virginia’s state coordinator for emergency management. “We asked our public safety partners from around the state to determine the priorities for this year’s grant process, and nearly 150 local leaders from emergency management, law enforcement, fire and rescue, and EMS participated as peer-reviewers to grade and rank projects.”

The grants have been awarded as follows:

Sixty-six projects valued at $2.6 million will receive funding from the SHSP based on competitive assessment by peer reviewers.

Additionally, more than $555,000 was re-programmed from the National Capital Region Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) and Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness grant programs to fund 7 projects.

As requested by the public safety stakeholders, an additional $2.6 million has been allocated in non-competitive grants from the SHSP to fund 26 projects sustaining 12 hazardous materials teams, six technical rescue teams, three incident management teams, four Virginia radio communications caches and the Virginia Fusion Center.