DHS offers $765M in risk-based grants

The Homeland Security Department has made $765 million available in fiscal 2006 for 35 urban areas to guard against terrorist threats, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff announced today.

The Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) this year follows a new, risk-based formula that allots funding according to threat, vulnerability and consequence, Chertoff said.

“The department is investing in federal funding into our communities facing the greatest risk and demonstrating the greatest need in order to receive the highest return in our nation’s security,” Chertoff said.

Eleven urban areas that received grants in fiscal 2005 received grants this year to build on the progress they have made, Chertoff said.

The UASI grants this year emphasize regional risk mitigation among cities in the same geographic area, Chertoff said. The 35 urban areas comprise 95 cities with at least 100,000 residents. Cities that share boundaries and urbanized areas outside city limits are now combined into one urban area, he said.

In assigning the grants, DHS also for the first time used threat analysis from the intelligence community to look at different kinds of threats, such as transient populations, Chertoff said.