Leahy: Vermont To Receive $1.5 M.
To Improve Disaster Relief Coordination

(TUESDAY, Nov. 15) – Vermont will receive a $1.5 million grant to fine-tune state and local first-responders’ management and coordination capabilities in responding to emergencies, Sen. Patrick Leahy announced.

The $1,569,343 grant to the Vermont Department of Public Safety’s Emergency Management Division comes from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  The Emergency Management Performance Grants program helps state and local emergency managers develop, maintain and improve their emergency management capabilities.  The grants give states the flexibility to allocate funds according to risk and to address the most urgent state and local needs in disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.  Vermont’s Department of Public Safety will outline its plans for the grant funds by the end of the year.

“Whether the cause is an act of terrorism or an act of nature, emergencies can strike our communities at any time, and preparation and coordination are crucial to getting the best results when a disaster hits,” said Leahy.

Leahy, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also is a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and its Homeland Security Subcommittee, which handles the Senate’s work in putting together the annual budget bill for the Department of Homeland Security.  He has long advocated an all-hazards approach to emergency management, aided by partnership federal funding, to help states prepare with coordinated responses to a wide range of emergencies.  Soon after 9/11 Leahy also authored and steered into law the charter and funding formula for the nation’s basic first-responder grant program.

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