§579 Interoperable Emergency Communications Grant Program

Summary

Creates a grant program to help States improve emergency communications that work together across local, tribal, regional, State, interstate, national, and, when appropriate, international responders for disasters and attacks. The Secretary of Homeland Security must set up the program. The FEMA Administrator will run it and must follow guidance from the Assistant Director for Emergency Communications. The Assistant Director must approve each State’s Statewide Interoperability Plan before the State gets money and must make sure grant work follows the State plan and the National Emergency Communications Plan once that plan is finished. The Secretary cannot award grants until the National Emergency Communications Plan required under section 572 is completed and sent to Congress. Equipment bought with grant money must meet voluntary consensus standards unless the State shows a strong reason not to. States must use the grants to carry out their approved Statewide Interoperability Plans and other activities the Secretary finds essential to interoperable emergency communications. A State must provide or obligate at least 80 percent of the grant money to local and tribal governments within 45 days, either as cash or equivalent eligible activities, and must not make tribes meet unreasonable conditions to get funds. Grants may not replace existing State or local funds, be used for required cost-sharing, or be spent for social or recreational purposes. The Secretary may take action, reduce, or redirect funds if a State misuses money. Applicants must be allowed to fix application problems before final awards. When choosing who gets money, the Secretary will consider each State’s risk from natural or man-made disasters, threats to critical infrastructure, population size and special populations like tourists or military, border and coastal factors, and how well the State will use the funds to improve interoperability. States must certify they used funds as intended and must send an annual progress report to the Assistant Director, who will publish reports and send an annual report to Congress. Minimum grant rules: for each fiscal year, no State can get less than 0.50 percent of the total for FY2008, 0.50 percent for FY2009, 0.45 percent for FY2010, 0.40 percent for FY2011, and 0.35 percent for FY2012 and later. American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the Virgin Islands must each receive at least 0.08 percent of the total each year. Authorized funding: for FY2008, such sums as may be necessary; for each of FY2009 through FY2012, $400,000,000; and for each later fiscal year, such sums as may be necessary. The law also allows States to use grant money for interim or long-term Internet Protocol–based interoperable solutions.