Searching for funding – first steps

Searching the Responder Knowledge Base, and even logging in as a guest (some of the restricted material won’t show up), for every piece of equipment – or category of equipment – the RKB will list the relevant grants. Or – find a grant program – and you can generate a list of allowable equipment purchases under that grant. Here’s an example:

This page, “Responder Knowledge Base – Grants and Assistance Programs Detaila – FY07 Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) program,” provides that states are the eligible grant-seekers – although not the only ultimate recipients of funds:

The program assists Urban Areas in building and sustaining capabilities to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from threats or acts of terrorism.

The FY 2007 UASI program provides the opportunity to enhance regional preparedness efforts. Urban Areas must employ regional approaches to overall preparedness and are encouraged to adopt regional response structures whenever appropriate to meet the goals identified in the Urban Area Homeland Security Strategy and common, measurable objectives. Security and preparedness officials at all levels should seek opportunities to leverage funding from multiple sources whenever possible and not restrict their activities to Federal funding alone. UASI funding will be provided to identified Urban Area authorities through the SAAs. In some instances Urban Area boundaries cross State borders. States must ensure that the identified Urban Areas take an inclusive regional approach to the development and implementation of the FY 2007 UASI program and involve the contiguous jurisdictions, mutual aid partners, port authorities, rail and transit authorities, State agencies, Citizen Corps Council(s), and MMRS

(s) in their program activities.

Investments should focus on outcomes that increase capabilities to prevent, protect against, respond to, or recover from CBRNE, agriculture, and cyber terrorism incidents; however, the allowable scope of UASI

activities includes catastrophic events, provided that these activities also build capabilities that relate to terrorism.

Many of the capabilities included within the TCL are dual-use in nature, in that they can apply to both terrorism preparedness as well as other hazards. Activities implemented under UASI must support terrorism preparedness and build or enhance capabilities that relate to terrorism in order to be considered eligible, even if the capabilities themselves do not focus exclusively on terrorism. For example, mass evacuation planning supports terrorism preparedness but also other types of catastrophic events. Planning for pandemic influenza and linking that effort to a larger bioterrorism preparedness effort offers another example. Grantees must demonstrate the dual-use nature of any activities implemented under this program that are not explicitly focused on terrorism preparedness.

Two things strike me about this:

First, the principal focus is on terrorism – and it’s an open question whether or not the greatest risks now are from terrorist attack, or from combinations of natural disasters, industrial failures, or the former exacerbated by the latter. Think Katrina, where the constant widening of commercial channels and destruction of marshland made the regin more vulnerable to flooding.

Second, the closest this

program gets to a Community Emergency Response Team is the local Citizen Corps Council – and in New York City, rather than being composed of local elected officials, religios leaders, etc. – the Council for the entire city, of 8.5 million people, is the Office of Emergency Management. Perhaps that’s a good thing – makes things more expeditious.

It’s clear that there’s more to know about this complex funding process, and we’ll keep reporting on it, as we get more.