DHS withdraws $5 million from Disaster Management office
Division, intended to set standards for interoperability software, is seen as duplicative of other agencies’ efforts; contract-holder Battelle loses out as DHS plans to redistribute funds around the agency
DHS has decided to withdraw $5 million dollars from its office of Disaster Management, an eight-year-old project to create interoperable communication standards for emergency management software and distribute such software to local governments that otherwise could not afford to buy such tools. DHS believes the project, currently managed by Columbus, Ohio-based Battelle, duplicates work being done by other DHS offices, including that of the Homeland Security Information Network, “a project designed to foster the exchange of threat information around the country,” Government Executive reported. According to to Christopher Kelly of DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate, the funds previously assigned to Disaster Management will be spent “to transition certain operational components” into other unnamed DHS units.
-read more in this Government Executive report
