Leahy Says $5 Million
For Vermont Emergency Response Agencies
Will Help, But More Is Needed

…New Federal Agency Releases Funds
Under Leahy-Authored First-Responders Program

WASHINGTON (Wed., Mar. 12) – Senator Patrick Leahy says the $4.96 million that Vermont’s first responders will receive in new domestic preparedness grant program funds is urgently needed by many of the state’s emergency response agencies, but he said more is needed.  The funds – authorized through a Leahy-authored grant program that includes a small-state minimum – are part of $600 million the Department of Homeland Security is releasing this week to help emergency response agencies across the country.

Leahy’s State and Local Domestic Preparedness Equipment Grant Program, recently transferred from the Justice Department to the Department of Homeland Security, is designed to help states purchase equipment to protect emergency response teams from chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Vermont and other smaller states are benefiting from a small-state minimum set-aside provision that Leahy added for these programs in the USA PATRIOT Act –  the anti-terrorism law enacted in Oct., 2001 – ensuring each state a minimum of .75 percent of the total program funding.

Vermont will receive $3.48 million for equipment, $871,000 for exercises, $261,000 for training and $348,000 for planning.  Leahy said the Vermont Department of Public Safety’s (VDPS) Homeland Security Unit has received Domestic Preparedness Equipment Grants totaling $1,161,000 from the U. S. Department of Justice for fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001.  For fiscal year 2002, Vermont received an additional $2,772,000 for Domestic Preparedness Equipment Grants, and now, for the current fiscal year, VDPS is receiving $4,963,000, for a total so far of $8,896,000.

“First responders need the support that was promised after September 11^th,” said Leahy, who is the senior Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  “This grant program is another step toward providing emergency workers with the support they need to do the job the federal government is asking them to do in the fight against terrorism.  I hope the President will follow through with his stated goal to increase funding for first responders."

The Administration’s decision to release this money comes only weeks after Leahy and other members of the Senate introduced legislation to boost funding for first responders.  Leahy, joined by Sen. Tom Daschle (D-N.D.) and others, has introduced The First Responders Partnership Grant Act (S.315) to charter a new $4 billion Justice Department grant program to support first responders in their efforts to protect homeland security by preventing and responding to acts of terrorism and terrorist threats.

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