By Rachael Bade, CQ Staff

House appropriators backed legislation Wednesday that would cut the Homeland Security Department’s funding by $484 million from current levels while boosting spending for first-responder grants, an account Republicans have sought to trim in recent years.

The Homeland Security Subcommittee gave swift voice vote approval to a fiscal 2013 draft bill that would provide $39.1 billion to the department. The total is about $393 million less than President Obama requested. Under the measure, the Transportation Security Administration’s funding would be cut by $422 million from current levels to $5.1 billion, the largest reduction among departmental agencies. (more…)

To: Emergency Managers

From: Martha Braddock, Policy Advisor
U.S. Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM-USA)

Subject: FY 2013 DHS Appropriations Bill—House Draft

Date: May 8, 2012

This morning (May 8th) the House Appropriations Committee released the draft of the FY 2013 Appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security. The Subcommittee on Homeland Security will mark up the bill Wednesday morning. Full Appropriations Committee markup is expected next week.

A copy of this memo including the Committee press release is attached in case the format is not stable. The complete text of the FY 2013 Subcommittee Draft Homeland Security Appropriations bill is available at– http://appropriations.house.gov/UploadedFiles/BILLS-112HR-SC-AP-FY13-Homeland.pdf. (more…)

By Rob Margetta, CQ Staff

Months after the Obama administration unveiled its proposal to roll 16 grant programs overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency into a single pool, lawmakers and local emergency-response officials are saying they still don’t know enough about the plan to overcome their initial, negative reactions.

The Obama budget request would provide the consolidated “National Preparedness Grant Program” with $1.5 billion in fiscal 2013, $424 million more than the 16 programs received in fiscal 2012, when several of them were zeroed out. Still, the proposal has come under fire from stakeholders worried that their favorite grant programs will suffer under the change, as well as lawmakers and officials who don’t like other parts of the administration’s plan, such as giving all funding to states to distribute, instead of providing it directly to local recipients. (more…)

A new Federal Emergency Management Agency all-hazards risk analysis methodology the agency says it’ll use to identify regional preparedness gaps and fiscal 2013 grants came under criticism from state and local officials during an April 26 House hearing.

The methodology (.pdf), Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment, “is a good start,” allowed Jim Davis, vice chair of the National Governors Association’s governors’ homeland security advisors council while testifying before the House Homeland Security subcommittee on emergency preparedness, response and communications.

“What concerns me though is that as long as we have a numerical formula, it doesn’t take into consideration certain other things,” said Davis, who is also executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety.

Read more @ fiercehomelandsecurity.com

Speaking on behalf of the National Governors Association (NGA) about the need to reform homeland security grant programs, James Davis, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, told the House Committee on Homeland Security subcommittee on emergency preparedness, response and communications that “federal funding for homeland security grant programs has been reduced by more than 50 percent over the last two fiscal years,” and that “the impact of this reduction, combined with ongoing state and local fiscal challenges, warrants reconsideration of the current grant structure to ensure funds can continue to be used as effectively as possible.”

Davis told the panel, “The decrease in funding has placed an administrative burden on grantees and has made it more difficult to achieve statewide and regional strategic goals. For instance, in some states, the fusion center has been supported in large part through the state’s 20 percent share of State Homeland Security Grant Program (SHSGP) funds. As those funds decrease, it is no longer possible to continue to operate the fusion center while also providing for management and administration of the entire SHSGP award or addressing other identified capability gaps.”

Read more @ hstoday.us