April 5, 2004

LANSING – The State of Michigan today awarded $73.1 million dollars to 104 local communities for homeland security efforts. The monies were made available under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) FY 2004 Homeland Security Grant Program. (See attached listing).

The awards integrate the State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) and Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program (LETPP) into a single grant package. The amount also includes funds for the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) Grant earmarked for the City of Detroit and Wayne County.

"These funds are vital to protect Michigan’s borders and our citizens and ensure that our state is prepared,” Governor Jennifer M. Granholm said. “Our first responders will use these funds to ensure a level of preparedness that keeps Michigan safe and secure, and while this funding is a good start, Michigan still has critical needs that I hope DHS will take into future consideration.”

Of the funds, $47,083,000 is being provided for homeland security and emergency operations planning; the purchase of specialized equipment to enhance the capability of state and local agencies to prevent, respond to, and mitigate incidents of terrorism involving the use of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) weapons and cyber attacks; for state CBRNE and cyber security training programs and cyber security exercises; and for costs associated with implementing the State Homeland Security Strategy.

The LETPP provides $13,971,000 to support prevention activities such as information sharing to preempt terrorist attacks; target hardening; recognition of potential or developing threats; interoperable communications; and intervention of terrorists before they can execute a threat.

FY 2004 Citizen Corps Program funds of $978,000 will be used to support citizen corps councils with planning, outreach, and management of citizen corps programs and activities.

The Urban Area Security Initiative will provide $23,491,484 from the combined 2004 and 2003 grants. The program provides financial assistance to address the unique planning, equipment, training, and exercise needs of large urban areas, and to assist them in building an enhanced and sustainable capacity to prevent, respond to, and recover from threats or acts of terrorism.

As prescribed by the Department of Homeland Security, 80 percent of the funds must be passed through to local communities, and the state will retain 20 percent for its preparedness efforts. However, with the 2004 UASI monies, the state is passing 100 percent of the funds through to the City of Detroit and Wayne County.

Awards to local communities are based on a funding formula that takes into consideration the population and critical infrastructure at risk in the community. Additionally, special allocations have been made to the international border communities of Port Huron, St. Clair County, and Chippewa County. The funding formula was developed by the Michigan State Planning Team which is made up of state and local representatives who reflect all 11 first responder disciplines that would be called upon to assist in a terrorist event.

During 2003, The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP) launched the State Homeland Security Assessment and Strategy (SHSAS) process. The process allowed the State and local jurisdictions to update their threat and response capability assessment data to reflect post-September 11, 2001, realities. Furthermore, the SHSAS serves as a planning tool for state and local jurisdictions in better allocating funds for homeland security efforts.

The assessment was a necessary step for the State in updating its statewide homeland security strategy and obtaining federal assistance. The strategy provides the umbrella goals and objectives for state and local communities in committing grant resources. In fact, Michigan’s strategy was the first in the nation to be approved by the Department of Homeland Security and has been offered as a model for other states.

One key concept in the strategy is to encourage regional approaches to planning and preparedness and to adopt regional response structures whenever appropriate to meet the needs identified through the assessment and in the state’s strategy. Furthermore, it is DHS’s intent to steer state and local security and preparedness efforts toward a project-oriented process to address 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”, stated Captain John Ort, Deputy State Director of Homeland Security. “While federal funding has provided us an opportunity to build a minimum level of capability in all first responder disciplines, we now need to focus on building capability in those areas of the state where the risk is the greatest.”

The Michigan Department of State Police Emergency Management Division (EMD) is the administrative agency for federal homeland security grant programs. It coordinates the grant program for the State and will be working with local jurisdictions in allocating the funds.

Attached Listing: Fiscal Year 2004 Homeland Security Grant Awards Listing