DHS awards $605M for six competitive preparedness grant programs

The results of six competitive preparedness grant programs under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) came in last week, resulting in $605 million to aid state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, nonprofit agencies, and the private sector ready for terrorism and natural disasters.

“DHS remains committed to strengthening America’s security and resilience,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. “This year, DHS will prioritize six critical areas: cybersecurity, soft targets, and crowded places, intelligence and information sharing, domestic violent extremism, community preparedness and resilience, and election security. The grants announced today will support our communities and help improve our readiness to prepare, respond to, and recover from major disasters, terrorist attacks, and other emergencies.”

Recipients included: 

• Operation Stonegarden ($90 million): to improve cooperation among state, local, tribal, territorial and federal law enforcement agencies dealing with land and water borders
• Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program ($15 million): to help eligible tribal nations create preparedness initiatives
• Nonprofit Security Grant Program ($305 million): to support target hardening and other physical security enhancements for nonprofit organizations deemed at high risk of terrorist attack
• Port Security Grant Program ($100 million): to help protect port infrastructure, enhance maritime domain awareness, improve port-wide maritime security risk management, and maintain or re-establish maritime security mitigation protocols that support port recovery and resiliency capabilities
• Transit Security Grant Program ($93 million): to help owners and operators of public transit systems protect critical surface transportation and shield the public from terrorism while increasing the resilience of transit infrastructure
• Intercity Bus Security Grant Program ($2 million): to help owners and operators of intercity bus systems protect critical surface transportation and shield the public from terrorism while increasing the resilience of transit infrastructure

Combined with non-competitive grant funding announced earlier this year, overall the Department of Homeland Security has provided more than $2 billion in FY 2023 for threat preparation efforts. 

Non-competitive grant recipients included the state homeland security program, urban area security initiative, emergency management performance grant, and intercity passenger rail.