Leahy’s ‘All-State-Minimum’ Formula
Means Vermont’s First Responders
Will Get $11 M. In Added Help
Under Bill Signed Wednesday By President Bush

WASHINGTON (Wed., April 16) – The supplemental spending bill signed Wednesday by President Bush includes more than $11 million for Vermont’s first responders to use for homeland security, under a formula written by Sen. Patrick Leahy that ensures first-responder funding for smaller states like Vermont.

The Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP), recently transferred from the Justice Department to the Department of Homeland Security, will use the funds to distribute grants to states for technical assistance, critical infrastructure protection and first responders.

Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a conferee on the mid-year appropriations bill, is the author of the current charter for the grant program, which he added to the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001.  Leahy included an all-state minimum to guarantee that states like Vermont receive at least 0.75 percent of the national allotment to help meet their domestic security needs.  Under the new funding bill enacted Wednesday, state and local first responders nationwide will receive $1.3 billion in grants to use for training, technical assistance and equipment to enhance their abilities to prepare for, respond to, and mitigate the consequences of domestic terrorism; $200 million for formula-based grants for critical infrastructure protection; and another $700 million that will go to high-threat urban areas such as New York City and Los Angeles.  Each state is required to transfer no less than 80 percent of the total amount of the funds they receive to local governments within 45 days of the grant award. 

“This is a just-in-time infusion of help for the first responders who are our troops on the front lines of domestic preparedness,” said Leahy.  “The federal government has been fast in giving first responders new responsibilities but slow in giving them much in the way of financial support.  They need much more, but this is a solid step forward.”

Leahy has also led in pushing for major new direct terrorism-related assistance to first responders.  In February he 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 and prevent and respond to acts of terrorism.  

# # # # #