DHS solicits applications for port security grants

The next round of federal port security grants from the United States Department of Homeland Security is now open to eligible parties, such as port authorities, marine terminal operators, and state and local government agencies.    The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday opened the door to parties interested in applying for $100 million in port security grants for the fiscal year 2016 cycle. Port authorities, marine terminal operators, state and local government agencies and others are eligible for grant awards.
   The port security grants are part of a broader notice for $1.6 billion in grant availability for various preparedness programs aimed at protection, response and recovery from terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other emergencies.
   The grants can be used to protect critical infrastructure, training, cybersecurity, implementation of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, enhance maritime domain awareness, improve maritime security risk management, and maintain or reestablish maritime security mitigation protocols that support port recovery and resiliency capabilities.
   Grant recipients are required to contribute a 25 percent share toward the cost of any project. 
   The Port Security Grant Program is a quarter of its former size following the 9/11 attacks.
   The Obama administration last week proposed in its fiscal year 2017 budget request to cut the port security grant program to $93 million, although Congress is expected to ignore the White House and stick with another $100 million appropriation. The White also gave up on its idea in previous budget requests to bundle all the state homeland security grants and ship them to the states to decide how to distribute them, something that the American Association of Port Authorities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors had opposed.