Payne homeland security grants bill passes House

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Friday introduced by Rep. Donald Payne, Jr., (D-NJ) to improve coordination between state and local partners on funding priorities for homeland security grants.

“Emergency preparedness takes a whole community, but too often there is a disconnect between individuals and entities that play critical roles in disaster response,” Payne said. “This lack of coordination makes it harder to protect against vulnerabilities and leaves our communities ill-prepared for disaster. Effective disaster preparedness requires that the right people are at the table when decisions are made about how federal grant funds are to be spent at the state and local level. That is why my legislation is essential to our nation’s emergency preparedness and response efforts.”

The State and High Risk Urban Area Working Group Act, H.R. 4509, was drafted to ensure coordination between homeland security grant recipients to provide effective disaster response planning.

The bill would require any high-risk urban area receiving funding under the State and Homeland Security Grant program or the Urban Area Security Initiative to establish a state planning committee, require state planning committees to include representative from specific stakeholder communities, and require members of the state planning committee to be from the affected areas.