GovernmentExecutive.com

House lawmakers Tuesday called on the Homeland Security Department to develop a plan to track how billions of dollars in grant funding have been spent by state and local governments since 2002.

They said they also want the department to define the minimum standards that emergency responders around the country should be striving to meet.

"The grant funding equation depends on several variables, including our ability to measure and reduce risk, and on how the requirements we place on our state and local partners are defined," said House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Price, D-N.C., during a hearing to examine the department's grant programs.

"The federal government must clearly articulate the minimum capabilities and requirements expected of them and their first responders, and the grant funding we provide must be related to helping them meet those capabilities and requirements," Price added.

Although state and local governments have been given about $20 billion in grants since 2002, the department has never developed a way to monitor and measure what has been achieved with the aid or if national homeland security capabilities have been strengthened, according to GAO.

"We still know little about how states have used federal funds to build their capabilities or reduce risks," testified William Jenkins, GAO's director of homeland security and justice issues.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was given responsibility for Homeland Security grant programs a year ago under legislation approved by Congress.

FEMA Administrator David Paulison told the subcommittee his agency will have a plan by August to measure the effectiveness of grant funding.

"We've put out $23.7 billion worth of grants and so far nobody's done an assessment of what kind of an impact is it having," Paulison said in an interview. "Is it working or not?"

He said the assessment will examine what impact grants have had and whether it has increased security across the country. "I really do think we've had an impact but there's nothing tangible that says that," he said.

Price and House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said they also want the department to define minimum preparedness standards that state and local officials should have to meet with their grants.

"The bottom line is I don't know that there's a plan out there that allocates these grants according to some logical plan," Rogers said.

Paulison testified that the department does have a plan that defines minimum capabilities.

"If it exists I've not seen it," Rogers shot back at Paulison. "We always get an answer just like you gave."

Rogers said the department must either develop a plan or Congress might have to take over responsibility for deciding where grants should be spent around the country. But he acknowledged that giving Congress that responsibility probably is not a good idea.

Price also criticized the level of grant funding in the department's fiscal 2009 budget request, saying grants and training programs are being cut by $2.2 billion, compared to the amount allocated by Congress for fiscal 2008.

Paulison said the requested grant funding is about equal to what the department sought for fiscal 2008. He said he believes the request is appropriate.

COMMENTS

• DHS grants are just more pork to be doled out by Congress! They require an enormous amount of paperwork, and just add another unnecessary layer to the already enormous DHS bureaucracy. Either eliminate them entirely, or allocate the funds to the states, to dole out as they see fit. ICEd Posted April 24, 2008 3:33 PM
• I live in Bergen County in New Jersey, a generally wealthy and densely populated area just across the river from New York. It is awash in volunteer fire companies competing with each other for the latest high priced fire fighting toys. Newspaper reports claim that Bergen County has more fire trucks than all of New York City (minus the boats) with a tenth of the population and a fraction of the area. (800,000 v. 8 million.) 4 cities of the 70 communities in the county have paid fire departments which appear oddly enough not receiving the governmental support the volunteers get. One city, an affluent community of 40,000, just rec'd nearly $700,000 from DHS for a new fire truck it claimed it could not otherwise afford. $20 per city resident would have bought the truck or rational regional or even county wide planning would have made the purchase unnecessary. Newark bought garbage trucks and supposedly Washington DC took the money and bought leather jackets for its PD. How many more illegal alien child molesters could ICE have removed with that money? How much more search time fuel would this buy for Coast Guard rescue aircraft? How many more containers could CBP search for dangerous Chinese products or drugs? I am very fond of the Congressman who made the fire truck happen, but he is caught up in this funding idiocy. Congress needs to put DHS money into DHS so it can do the federal portion of homeland security not satisfying earmarks. The states are making a huge mistake in becoming dependent on federal dollars for emergency services. One day soon that will evaporate when we run out of Medicare funds or have to fight a war that is really expensive. Regrettably DOD employee is correct. Jim Posted March 14, 2008 9:19 PM
• DHS grants are all squandered. DHS grants are just an excuse for state and local governments to plunder the Federal treasury for toys. DoD Employee Posted March 13, 2008 3:40 PM