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ICJI > Other Funding >  > FEMA, Justice Open Window for Police, Fire Grant Applications FEMA, Justice Open Window for Police, Fire Grant Applications

CQ HOMELAND SECURITY - LOCAL RESPONSE
March 6, 2003 - 9:05 p.m.

FEMA, Justice Open Window for Police, Fire Grant Applications

By David Clarke, CQ Staff Writer

Police, firefighters and other emergency crews have been waiting more than a year for the federal government to open its wallet for equipment or training.

And despite the passage of the fiscal 2003 appropriations bill, which ostensibly throws open the doors of the U.S. Treasury, they'll have to wait a little while longer.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, now part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), will begin accepting applications Monday from local fire departments for the $750 million in grants that is available this year for equipment and training through the U.S. Fire Administration.

But according to Tom Olshanski, a spokesman for the U.S. Fire Administration, the application window will be open for a month. And officials will need another two months after that to review those grant requests. Checks won't hit the mail until July, with three-quarters of the fiscal year already gone.

FEMA has gone ahead with its fire grant program because officials in the new department still are working on how they will handle the process of getting grant money from the federal treasury to local fire houses and police departments.

Brian Roehrkasse, a DHS spokesman, said the department will make a grant-related announcement March 7. He declined to elaborate.

The law creating the department (PL 107-296) assigns the responsibility for administering first responder grants to the Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP), which formerly was part of the Justice Department.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has said that providing state and local governments with a "one-stop shopping" office for assistance is one of his priorities. But he might not realize that goal this year.

While President Bush has proposed that the $3.5 billion he requested for first responders be administered by ODP next year, the bulk of the $3.5 billion Congress finally appropriated last month for fiscal 2003 has been spread across the various standing assistance programs, only some of which now reside at DHS. Nearly $1.5 billion of the total, for example, remains under Justice Department control.

And while FEMA has moved ahead with its grant programs, when and how the $1 billion Congress specifically allocated to ODP will be distributed remains an unanswered question.

This $1 billion would support state and local police agencies and includes:

*$459 million for equipment;

*$233 million for training; and

*$112 million for exercises.

Police departments are eagerly awaiting direction from the department on how this money will be distributed.

"I don't have any answers," said Gene Voegtlin, legislative counsel for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, who has been talking with ODP officials. "If I did, I would be the most popular guy in the law enforcement community."

A Friend at Justice

But local police can at least turn to the Justice Department, which has the policies and procedures in place to distribute the $500 million Congress earmarked for the Byrne Grant programs, the $470 million set aside for the Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) program, and the $500 million available this year in the Law Enforcement Block Grant program.

Justice Department officials, in fact, plan to begin accepting grant applications for the Byrne Grants next week.

The application deadline is April 24 and awards could start rolling out by the end of June, a program spokeswoman said.

The grants can be used for a variety of initiatives, including counterterrorism training programs.

COPS program officials, meanwhile, have not determined when they will begin accepting grant proposals, said spokesman Gilbert Moore. He said the department hopes to have the money in the hands of local police within three to six months.

The money Congress earmarked for Justice Department assistance programs has become a source of tension between the president and Congress.

Bush demanded that the entire $3.5 billion go through FEMA. But that approach would have gutted the Justice Department programs, which are very popular with local police and, by extension, many members of Congress.

Hill appropriators, as a result, rejected the White House plan and split the money between the existing Justice programs and the grants now managed by the new Homeland Security agency.

Bush called the maneuver "micromanagement," while members of Congress from both sides of the aisle shot back that Bush's plan shortchanged local law enforcement programs.

Appropriators also specified how the funding going to FEMA should be spent, so that is doesn't get "lost in the morass of the Department of Homeland Security," according to the report that accompanies the fiscal 2003 omnibus spending bill.

That direction sits well with the firefighting community, said Alan Caldwell, director of government relations for the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

"The fire service has been very pleased with the way FEMA has run [the fire grants program] over the past couple of years," he said. "It's an outstanding model grant program."

The fire grant program was established in 2000 through the 2001 defense authorization act (PL 106-398). The grants go directly to local fire departments - one reason the program is so popular with the fire service.

David Clarke can be reached via dclarke@cq.com.

Source: CQ Homeland Security
© 2003 Congressional Quarterly Inc. All Rights Reserved