FEMA Announces Nearly $1 Billion in Federal Funding to Help States Manage Disaster Preparedness

Grant Funding Aligned to Revised National Priority Areas, Including Border Security and Election Security 

WASHINGTON -- Today, FEMA published Notices of Funding Opportunity for 15 grant programs, making nearly $1 billion available to communities across the country. These federal funds will enable states to manage their preparation for disasters like fires, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, as well as incidents like terrorist attacks or massive cyber disruptions. These funding opportunities join several others recently published by FEMA. Since Friday, July 25, FEMA has published Notices of Funding Opportunity amounting to more than $2.2 billion available to state, local, tribal and territorial governments to help them protect American citizens. 

“FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers states to provide relief for their citizens,” said Senior Official Performing the Duties of the FEMA Administrator David Richardson. “Through these funding opportunities, we are enabling all of our partners especially state, local, tribal and territorial governments to plan for and manage their own disaster response and recovery. The more we build resilience directly in our communities, the more prepared our nation will be when disasters strike.” 

This announcement comes after a critical evaluation of all grant programs and recipients to root out waste, fraud and abuse and deliver accountability for the American taxpayer. Unlike the previous administration, recipients of grants will no longer be permitted to use federal funds to house illegal immigrants at luxury hotels, fund climate change pet projects or empower radical organizations with unseemly ties that don’t serve the interest of the American people.

To guide investments for preparedness grants during the FY 2025 grant cycle, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revised the National Priority Areas to ensure that grant funds are efficiently and effectively used to secure the nation and protect Americans. This year’s National Priority Areas are: (1) protecting soft targets and crowded places (including election sites); (2) supporting Homeland Security Task Forces and fusion centers; (3) cybersecurity; (4) election security (including verifying that poll workers are US citizens); and (5) supporting border crisis response and enforcement. Homeland Security Grant Program recipients—including those under the Urban Area Security Initiative—will be required to dedicate a minimum of 30% of their awards across these five priority areas. Of the 30%, there is a 3% minimum spend on election security and a 10% minimum spend on border crisis response and enforcement. These National Priority Areas demonstrate how DHS is refocusing on its core mission of protecting the American people and the rule of law. 

States and other eligible applicants should carefully review each Notice of Funding Opportunity to learn eligibility requirements, evaluation criteria and applications periods. Below is a list of Notices of Funding Opportunity published August 1. All published Notices of Funding Opportunity are available on Grants.gov.

• Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) Urban Area Security Initiative
• Port Security Grant Program
• Transit Security Grant Program
• State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program
• Tribal Cybersecurity Grant Program
• Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program
• Emergency Food and Shelter Program
• Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program
• Intercity Passenger Rail
• Intercity Bus Security Grant Program
• National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium
• Continuing Training Grant Program
• Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence
• National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) Multistate and National Earthquake Assistance
• State Fire Training Assistance 

FEMA is committed to using these federal funds to empower states to take charge of their own disaster preparedness, response and recovery. This will strengthen the security and resilience of the entire nation.