It’s no secret the U.S. Government has been running its largest annual budget deficits in history, $1.5 trillion in FY 2011, all the while amassing over $14 trillion in total national debt. The new Congress, particularly the Republican controlled House of Representatives, is determined to significantly cut discretionary spending this fiscal year and beyond. How this will impact DHS homeland security grants to states and localities is unclear.
What is clear is that since the creation of the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) program and other DHS grants, states and localities have not done a particularly good job of educating Congress and the public on the significant benefits these programs provide to our nation’s security. This may result in the UASI program and other homeland security grants facing cuts in FY 2011 and 2012 as Washington attempts to right it wayward fiscal ship. Such a result is not preordained.
All federal grant programs have constituencies that benefit from such programs – law enforcement, fire service, emergency management, public health, transportation, etc. In most cases these constituencies are organized nationally for a number of reasons, not least of which to educate and advocate before Congress and the Administration on behalf of their programs.
For example, emergency managers, as part of the National Emergency Management Association and International Association of Emergency Managers, lobby hard for Emergency Management Performance Grants; the fire service through the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Fire Fighters support the Assistance to Firefighter Grants; and law enforcement through the International Association of Chiefs of Police and National Sheriffs Association, among others, for Community Oriented Policing grants, etc. Not so when it comes to most homeland security grants. There is no nationally organized group representing homeland security directors at the State level and/or UASI managers at the local level.
Today, individual States and UASI jurisdictions often advocate on homeland security issues in a vacuum focusing on a specific member of their Congressional delegation or member of the Administration. This fragmented approach fails to present a unified national position on key issues. States and Urban Areas simply do not take advantage of the basic premise of “strength in numbers.” Thus, homeland security professionals lack the ability to adequately influence policy on a national scale in Washington, DC including, for example, fully funding the UASI program at authorized levels.
There may now be an opportunity to change this. Starting in 2005, several Urban Areas started an annual UASI conference to share information and best practices. The 2011 National UASI Conference is being held in San Francisco in June. Recently, the conference has organized as a non-profit under the Internal Revenue Code. This annual conference and the people it brings together serve as an excellent foundation to build a National Homeland Security Association (NHSA) focused on ensuring that the voices of the Urban Areas, States and other homeland security officials are heard in the federal policy and budget-making process.
A NHSA would provide a network for homeland security professionals to share best practices; coordinate on projects; respond to specific informational and analytical requests from the association’s members; serve as a clearinghouse for information about Congressional and Administration policy, funding and legislative developments; and serve as a liaison to the homeland security business community, etc.
At this moment, some States and UASI regions, such as California and the San Francisco Bay Area UASI, are trying to educate Congress and organize other UASI regions. As California and the Bay Area move to build momentum, it’s important for other UASI’s and States to support them. The cause of supporting the UASI program is not hard to sell. It’s simply a matter of educating policy makers, the media and the public at large on the benefits it and other homeland security grant programs provide, as opposed to the usual drumbeat in the media that the grant funds haven’t been spent fast enough.
The UASI and other homeland security grants have been invaluable in building not only local, regional and statewide capabilities and collaboration, but also national level resources to prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from threats and acts of terrorism and other catastrophic hazards. This includes intelligence fusion centers, critical infrastructure protection programs, urban search and rescue teams, regional planning, and statewide exercises involving local, state, tribal and federal participants. The grant programs have brought cities, counties, tribes, states and federal partners together in ways no other programs before or since have. Such benefits and capabilities simply would not exist without these grant programs and will dissipate without them.
Congress has tough decisions to make about where to cut the federal budget. As it makes those decisions, it needs to be accurately informed about which programs work and those that don’t. The House Republicans have said they do not want to impose across the board spending cuts, as such an approach wrongly treats all federal programs the same in terms of their value. With the UASI program and other homeland security grants, States and Urban Areas should have a sympathetic ear in Congress if the States and Urban Areas can speak with a compelling and unified voice. >
