DHS Announces That $3 Billion in Counterterrorism Grants for Next Year to State and Local Agencies Will Have Fewer Strings Attached
Last Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced plans to dole out $3 billion in counterterrorism grants next year to state and local agencies with far fewer strings attached than in past years, in a concession to sharply tightening budgets at all levels of government.
The total amount mandated by Congress to go to the 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as funds for ports, transit systems, emergency managers, tribes, nonprofit groups and others, remains close to last year’s levels. But, unlike in past years, DHS acted months earlier in revealing specific amounts that will go to the states and the 62 designated high-risk cities.
According to the Washington Post, the DHS move marks a response to criticism from a Democratic Congress and increasingly restive state and local leaders. They have complained that the Bush administration’s domestic security officials have focused on terrorism at the expense of other law enforcement priorities, such as fighting drugs, gangs and violent crime.
That tension is expected to intensify as the nation’s financial crisis deepens. The incoming Democratic administration will face hard funding choices as it tries to improve ties with state and local partners who must choose between keeping police officers on the beat; maintaining costly equipment, systems and supplies intended to respond to a terrorist attack; and other needs.
Among other changes, DHS loosened rules to allow recipients to spend up to 50% of homeland security grants for personnel expenses, up from 25%; ease a 25% local-match requirement for rail, transit and port security aid; lift a three-year limit on funding for intelligence analysts in law enforcement “fusion” centers, which police chiefs nationwide have requested.
The department also agreed to spread aid for immigration law enforcement to states with international water as well as land borders, and to let grants be used to store — not just purchase — emergency supplies such as prepackaged food, water and medicines.
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