Steven Holt: “after more than 2 years of needless delay, the House is finally taking action on the balance of the recommendations made…”

“after more than 2 years of needless delay, the House is finally taking action on the balance of the recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission. This is a large bill that tackles a range of critical issues, but I want to comment on three areas in particular: risk-based funding for homeland security needs, making our first responder's communications truly interoperable, and measures we need to take overseas to stop the terrorist from getting here in the first place. For the past several years, I've sponsored a series of homeland security grant writing workshops for first responder organizations in my district. These workshops are always well attended and I'm pleased that they've been of value in helping various fire, EMS, and police departments cross central New Jersey become competitive in applying for these grants. However, the one question I get most often from these professionals is 'Why aren't these grants allocated on the basis of risk?'. I know many of my colleagues were hearing the same thing from their first responders, which is why last year I joined a number of my colleagues in sending a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff asking him to make grant award decisions on the basis of risk. While DHS has made some progress in this area, it hasn't come far enough quickly enough. That's why I'm pleased that this bill requires DHS to use a risk-based funding formula when allocating these grants.”