By Laura DeKoven Waxman
May 14, 2012

The FY 2013 homeland security spending bill reported out of the homeland security appropriations subcommittee May 9 would provide $2.8 billion for FEMA first responder grants, $400 million more than is available this year. Reported out on a voice vote, the bill would provide $39.1 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, $484 million less than is available this year and $393 million less than the President requested.

For state and local homeland security grant programs, the bill provides $1.763 billion to be distributed at the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security according to threat, vulnerability, and consequence among the various homeland security programs, including the State Homeland Security Grant program, Urban Area Security Initiative, Public Transportation Security Grants, Port Security Grants, Metropolitan Medical Response System, Emergency Operation Centers, and Buffer Zone Protection grants. Within the $1.763 billion, the bill earmarks $150 million for areas at the highest threat of terrorist attack, $55 million for Operation Stonegarden, and $232 million for training, exercises, and technical assistance.

The $1.763 billion request for state and local programs is just over $400 million more than is available this year. It is also over $200 million more than the $1.541 billion the President requested for a new National Preparedness Grant Program. The Conference of Mayors has raised serious concerns with the Department's proposal to scrap all of the existing homeland security grant programs and establish this new state-centric program. The proposal generally has not been well received in Congress and it appears that the Appropriations Committee is not going along with it. The Committee's statement on the bill, however, does say that "the Committee continues reforms to consolidate grant programs into a streamlined fund allocated based on commons'sense conditions, such as risk to communities."

In other FEMA programs, the bill would provide $335 million each to the SAFER and Assistance to Firefighter Grant programs, about the same as is available this year, and $350 million for Emergency Management Performance Grants, the same amount as is available this year.