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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 16, 2010
For more information, contact:
Robyn Johnson, District of Columbia Homeland Security
and Emergency Management Agency, 202-481-3010
Rick Abbruzzese, Maryland Governor’s Communications Office, 410-974-2316
Bob Spieldenner, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, 804-897-6510
Merni Fitzgerald, Fairfax County Office of Public Affairs, 703-324-3189
Yesterday, homeland security officials said the National Capital Region will receive $59 million in federal homeland security funds from the Urban Areas Security Initiative Program (UASI) for fiscal year 2010.
The announcement came from local and state officials in the National Capital Region (NCR), representing the District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell.
The money was awarded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This year DHS pre-identified the funding available to each urban area through the UASI program. As in the past, this year’s UASI funds will be used to improve the region’s readiness for disasters. The funds will be focused in several key areas, including law enforcement; critical infrastructure protection; information technology integration; and health and medical readiness. Later this summer, officials will announce the specific projects to be funded.
Officials also noted that the region will get $3.57 million from the Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program. These grants are intended to help high-risk urban areas across the country plan for catastrophic emergencies like the detonation of a nuclear bomb.
The National Capital Region — which is comprised of 11 local jurisdictions, two states and the District of Columbia — prepares for disasters collaboratively. This unique regional structure, in the area that is home to the nation’s capital with the associated elevated risks, requires an equally complex system to determine how to best and most equitably allocate scarce resources such as UASI funds.
The NCR’s elected officials, emergency management, law enforcement, fire and public health personnel, along with the nonprofit and private sectors, work together across the region’s jurisdictional boundaries to identify and prioritize projects to improve the region’s emergency preparedness and response capabilities.
Past UASI grants have been used to prepare, train and equip law enforcement, fire, emergency medical services, transportation, public health and other first responders, improving their capabilities to prevent and respond to a wide range of potential hazards in the NCR. The funding also has been used to assist public safety officials to communicate across jurisdictional boundaries by enhancing interoperable communications; offer emergency alerts and notifications to the public; educate the public on disaster preparedness; assist special needs populations to prepare for major emergencies; increase medical readiness; and equip first responders to respond to all types of hazardous situations.
The National Capital Region invests in disaster preparations in an efficient, regionally coordinated manner, and focuses the region’s homeland security spending on the greatest risks and needs.
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About the National Capital Region
The NCR encompasses the District of Columbia and parts of Maryland and Virginia, including the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William in Virginia and Montgomery and Prince George’s in Maryland, which include the municipalities of Bowie, College Park, Gaithersburg, Greenbelt, Rockville and Takoma Park.