DHS awards $399 million in critical infrastructure grants

The money is flowing like water out of DHS these days. The latest faucet is the Infrastructure Protection Program, with $399 million in new state and municipal grants to improve port and transit safety under a series of seperate, competitive programs contained within the Infrastructure Protection Program (IPP). In July, as we reported at the time, funding was directly allocated to four programs within the IPP: the Buffer Zone Protection Program; the Chemical Buffer Zone Protection Program; the Intercity Rail Transit Program; and the Trucking Security Program. This week DHS announced the winners of three others: the Port Security Grant Program ($168 million); the Transit Security Grant Program ($136 million); and the Intercity Bus Security Grant Program ($9.5 million). DHS used the following criteria in making the awards:

—Port Security Grant Program: Ports were grouped into four tiers of relative risk, with funding awarded for specific projects based on that port’s relative risk and the relationship of each project to identified port security priorities. The lists were developed by the Coast Guard using commercial, demographic, and geographic data from various sources. The result, as we have noted, was to boost spending on the ports of New York and New Jersey at California’s expense

—Transit Security Grant Program: Rail, intracity bus, and ferry systems were divided into two tiers based on risk formulas encompassing threat, vulnerability and consequences. Tier 1 areas, which are composed of high passenger density and rail systems with significant infrastructures such as underwater tunnels and underground stations and all ferry systems, received $123 million in July. The latest grant gives $13 million to tier 2 regions that received funds in previous years but were not named in tier 1. These Tier 2 allocations place a strong emphasis on prevention and detection of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Eligible Tier 2 transit systems may also focus on other priorities, including emergency drills, employee training and public awareness programs

—Intercity Bus Security Grant Program (IBSGP): Intended for use by owners and operators of fixed route intercity and charter bus services, IBSGP places a strong emphasis on prevention and detection of IEDs, as well as facility security enhancements, driver and vehicle security improvements, and emergency communications technology. Applications were reviewed and rated by a National Review Panel chaired by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and composed of security subject matter experts from DHS and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)

-read more in this DHS infrastructure protection program report ; for more information on allocations, see DHS Web site