(ST. PAUL, Minn.) – Leaders in the Minnesota Legislature are urging an end to the federal government’s pause on funding several Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant programs that are being withheld from local, tribal, and state agencies, threatening the public safety of Minnesotans.
Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee Chair Ron Latz and House Public Safety Committee DFL Co-Chair Kelly Moller, released the following statement:
“Our public safety partners across local, tribal, and state agencies depend on federal reimbursements to fulfill their critical missions that keep our communities and citizens safe. The continued withholding of this funding threatens this mission, putting the lives of Minnesotans at risk. We already face significant challenges in passing a budget, which will only face further challenges if the pause continues beyond our adjournment. We respectfully urge action from our federal partners to end this funding pause and ensure that Minnesota’s public safety needs are not at risk.”
The federal pause on FEMA reimbursements includes a number of grant programs that are integral to Minnesota’s disaster recovery, preparedness, and security efforts including:
- Emergency Management Performance Grant – Supports emergency management efforts in every county across Minnesota. These funds enable state, local, tribal, and state agencies to implement the National Preparedness System and build the capabilities necessary to address the increasing complexity of disasters.
- Urban Area Security Initiative – Enhances urban areas’ capacity to prevent, prepare for, protect against, and respond to acts of terrorism.
- State Homeland Security Program – Supports state, local, tribal, and territorial efforts to build and sustain capabilities necessary to address acts of terrorism.
- Nonprofit Security Grant Program – Provides funding for physical security enhancements and preparedness efforts for nonprofit organizations at high risk of terrorist or extremist attacks.
- Operation Stonegarden – Facilitates cooperation among law enforcement agencies to strengthen border security.
- Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention grant – Direct grant from the Dept. of Homeland Security to the Minnesota BCA.
- FEMA grants also fund over half of the staffing at the Department of Public Safety’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and critical law enforcement and intelligence staffing at DPS’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).
- Another program, the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program has been cancelled leaving Minnesota agencies on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars without being reimbursed.
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