Emergency Management seeks $45 million in grants

The Division of Emergency Management is applying for a total of $45.26 million in anti-terrorism and homeland security grants this year.

But Division Administrator Frank Siracusa told the Homeland Security Commission's Finance Committee Wednesday he doesn't anticipate actually getting that much from the federal government.

"It's highly competitive and all 50 states are competing for these dollars," he said.

In 2004, the state received $32 million, but that the number has been dropping every year since. Last year's grants totaled $18 million, Siracusa said.

Siracusa said after the grant award is announced - 90 days after the May 1 deadline for submitting applications - his staff and the commission will determine how much money each project will actually get based on what Nevada gets.

One of the largest projects on the list of 12 is continued expansion and improvement to the emergency radio system. The state has been using large portions of Homeland Security funding each year to create a radio system linking all agencies across the state so they can communicate in an emergency. The projected budget to continue that process this year is $8.78 million.

The application calls for $6.6 million to strengthen Improvised Explosive Device deterrence, prevention and protection. That ties in to the $3.3 million requested for improvements to Nevada's Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosive detection and decontamination programs.

The application asks for $6.4 million for Nevada's Fusion Center project and expansion of the criminal justice information sharing system.

In addition, the application seeks federal funding to strengthen the state's readiness to handle medical demands if there is a large terrorism incident, for citizen preparedness and enhanced regional collaboration.

Siracusa said the total requested is $45,262,035.