U.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY

Leahy: New Milestone For Vermont’s First Responders;
Leahy-Authored Fund Formula
Brings State's Police, Fire And Rescue Units Another $14 M.

 . . . Vermont Nets $54 M. Since Enactment Of Leahy Formula

WASHINGTON (Thursday, Dec. 2) – Vermont’s first responders will receive  $14.3 million more to help purchase life-saving equipment and to train and prepare for emergencies including potential terror-related scenarios, Sen. Patrick Leahy announced Thursday afternoon.  The funds announced by Leahy Thursday raise to $54 million the total funding since 2002 that Vermont’s first responders have received through a formula authored by Leahy that ensures that smaller states' first responders are not shortchanged.  

The grants, administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), are distributed through the Vermont Department of Public Safety to police departments, fire departments and rescue squads across the state, based on their applications for the funds.  Vermont and other smaller states continue to benefit from an all-state minimum formula that Leahy wrote for this program in the USA PATRIOT Act – the anti-terrorism law enacted in October 2001 – ensuring each state a minimum of .75 percent of the total program funding.  Before Leahy’s new charter for the program was enacted, a majority of these first responder grants were subject to distribution decisions that often did not consider the basic needs of first responders in smaller states.

Thursday’s $14.3 million announcement includes $9,304,415 from the State Homeland Security Grant Program, $3,383,424 from the DHS Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program, $118,120 from the DHS Citizen Corps Grant Program, and $1,520,181 from the Emergency Management Performance Grant Program.  The Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program will specifically help Vermont’s police officers detect, deter, disrupt and prevent acts of terrorism.  The Citizen Corps, a component of USA Freedom Corps, was created in January 2002 to help coordinate volunteer activities to make our communities safer and better prepared to respond to emergency situations.  The Emergency Management Performance Grant Program funds will aid the Vermont Emergency Management Agency in the planning, coordinating, exercise design, public education, and response to and recovery from actual incidents.

In the past three years, the Leahy formula has brought $54,850,000 to Vermont's first responders.  In a similar three-year span prior to the  enactment of the Leahy formula, Vermont received $1,161,000 under the program's previous charter.

“Our police, firefighters and EMT’s are doing their best to meet their new domestic preparedness responsibilities, and these grants help them do it," said Leahy.  “Without these funds, some of our public safety workers would lack the tools they need for their safety and for our security, for no other reason than because they serve the people of a smaller state.  This program is equipping Vermont’s bravest, in rural and urban parts of the state, with the tools and training they tell us they need.”

The Department of Homeland Security is currently spotlighting an earlier grant received by Vermont’s Williamstown Fire Department as one of the first responder funding program’s great successes.  The fire department used the funds to purchase a thermal imaging camera to help locate victims during fires, to purchase turnout gear, to fund training of a rapid intervention team, and to purchase air packs needed for fighting fires.  The department is one of 22 services across the nation highlighted on the DHS Office of Domestic Preparedness website at http://www.firegrantsupport.com/stories/stories.aspx.

# # # # #