How to apply for port security grants

Published 1 February 2006

So you run a port and want to apply for a DHS port security grant; here is how

You run a seaport and you want to receive some of the $175 million of federal grant money to be doled out during fiscal 2006 under the port security grants program? Thomas Robison, director of transport and intermodal security at DHS’s Office of Domestic Preparedness says it will help if you punctiliously hew your grant demand to the format and guidelines laid out in the federal application packet. It would also help to establish how closely your own fiscal need matches federal anti-terror goals. Robison said that the $150 million disbursed toward port security in fiscal 2005 was parceled out under a revised scheme which took into account a risk matrix that ranked ports. Only 66 ports out of some 361 U.S. seaports qualified as risky enough and thus eligible for federal grants. The fact that there is no U.S. federal definition of a port only compounded the issue, Robison said.

-read more in this report; see also the Post Security Council Web site

MORE: Representative Peter King (R-New York), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that the formula for distributing homeland security funds to states has to be overhauled. King, who spoke Tuesday at a rail and maritime security conference in Washington, said, “One thing which has to be changed is the current formula, which basically spreads money around the country… without taking into account threat and risk.” CQ report (sub. req.)

ALSO: Funding from DHS helped build Chicago’s new City Incident Center to coordinate traffic, towing, fire fighting, and snow removal. “This is the logical next step in our ongoing effort to integrate the communications and dispatch operations of all the relevant city departments, so they can respond rapidly and effectively to any emergency — whether it’s a blizzard, a major fire or a terrorist attack,” said Mayor Richard Daley opening of the state-of-the-art facility Monday. Chicago already has one of the world’s most advanced 911 emergency response centers next door to the 3,000-square-foot Incident Center. The $4 million center has 24 computer workstations, 42 television screens, and advanced Web-enabled communications including an 18-foot tall, high-definition video wall. A dozen of the television monitors can descend to eye level and display live television images from citywide cameras. Report