Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has published a Notices of Funding Opportunity for 15 grant programs, making nearly $1 billion available to communities across the country.
These federal funds will enable states to manage their preparation for disasters like fires, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, as well as incidents like terrorist attacks or massive cyber disruptions.
These funding opportunities join several others recently published by FEMA. Since Friday 25 July, FEMA has published Notices of Funding Opportunity amounting to more than $2.2 billion available to state, local, tribal and territorial governments to help them protect American citizens.
Senior Official Performing the Duties of the FEMA Administrator David Richardson shared: “FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers states to provide relief for their citizens.
“Through these funding opportunities, we are enabling all of our partners especially state, local, tribal and territorial governments to plan for and manage their own disaster response and recovery.
“The more we build resilience directly in our communities, the more prepared our nation will be when disasters strike.”
This announcement comes after a critical evaluation of all grant programs and recipients to root out waste, fraud and abuse and deliver accountability for the American taxpayer.
Unlike the previous administration, recipients of grants will no longer be permitted to use federal funds to house illegal immigrants at luxury hotels, fund climate change pet projects or empower radical organizations.
To guide investments for preparedness grants during the FY 2025 grant cycle, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revised the National Priority Areas to ensure that grant funds are efficiently and effectively used to secure the nation and protect Americans.
This year’s National Priority Areas are: (1) protecting soft targets and crowded places (including election sites); (2) supporting Homeland Security Task Forces and fusion centers; (3) cybersecurity; (4) election security (including verifying that poll workers are US citizens); and (5) supporting border crisis response and enforcement.
Homeland Security Grant Program recipients—including those under the Urban Area Security Initiative—will be required to dedicate a minimum of 30% of their awards across these five priority areas.
Of the 30%, there is a 3% minimum spend on election security and a 10% minimum spend on border crisis response and enforcement.
These National Priority Areas demonstrate how DHS is refocusing on its core mission of protecting the American people and the rule of law.
FEMA has published a Notices of Funding Opportunity for 15 grant programs, making nearly $1 billion available to communities across the country.
