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Committee Approves Homeland Security Grant Reforms By Joe Fiorill WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Select Committee on Homeland Security yesterday approved legislation to reform the Homeland Security Department’s system for funding local and state WMD and terrorism response (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2003). The bipartisan bill, which must now go through three other House committees before reaching the full chamber, would require the department to create a new First Responder Grant Program, set equipment and training standards for agencies seeking funding and define “essential capabilities” based on assessments of the terrorist threat. It would create a task force of emergency responders to aid the department’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate in defining the essential capabilities. “The bill streamlines and speeds homeland security grant assistance to first responders and funds actual needs. … The legislation prioritizes terrorism preparedness funding for homeland security based on actual threat and vulnerability assessments, rather than political formulas,” committee Chairman Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) said. The approval came only two days after the department announced the formation of its own grant-related task force ― a panel of state and local officials created to seek ways to speed the flow of funds from the department’s Office for Domestic Preparedness to emergency responders (see GSN, March 16). The grant system has come under intense scrutiny in recent months as states and cities squared off over delays in the funding pipeline that Cox yesterday called a “$5.5 billion bottleneck” (see GSN, Feb. 23). In addition, the Office for Domestic Preparedness has been accused of distributing the funds without setting an overarching strategy or conveying goals and standards to recipients. The Bush administration recently signaled, particularly through its fiscal 2005 budget proposal, its intention to move away from a largely population-based formula for distributing the grants ― the “political formulas” referred to by Cox ― and to seek instead to distribute more of the money based on threat information. The House committee’s bill will now go to the Energy and Commerce, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Judiciary committees before reaching the House floor ― a lengthy process that could lead to the legislation’s being carried over into the next congressional session, according to Select Committee on Homeland Security Democratic spokeswoman Moira Whelan. Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) and Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) yesterday pledged to make the legislation a high priority in their committees. “It’s definitely a priority, I think, for members. This is a broken system, and every member has an interest in this legislation,” Whelan said today. In related news, Office for Domestic Preparedness Director Suzanne Mencer yesterday came under blistering bipartisan criticism at the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. Dissatisfaction with efforts to fund WMD- and terrorism-defense efforts was evident among panel members, several of whom cited frustration on the part of local officials in their districts. Subcommittee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) pressed Mencer on her office’s effort to carry out a December 2003 directive by President Bush requiring the establishment of national goals and standards for first responders. “What I want the department to do is to draw up a list of what we expect first responders to achieve. … I want us to say to them, ‘The money that we’re giving you for the antiterrorism aspect of what we’re trying to do, here’s what we expect of you,’” Rogers said. “I hear it all the time [from local officials] ― you know, ‘What do you all want us to do?’” he said. Mencer said her office has produced a draft articulating the goals but that several procedural steps remain before the goals can be communicated to potential funding recipients. Steps include briefing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge next week, Mencer said. Representative Marion Berry (D-Ark.) questioned the competence of virtually the entire Homeland Security Department. Of the numerous department officials who have appeared before the subcommittee, Berry said, only Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin “really knew what he was doing.” “I think there should be a massive wake-up call in the whole department,” said Berry.
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