I was a pretty normal emergency manager trying to get by with the operational funds I could get from my parent organization. These funds primarily paid for staff as our equipment needs were small; generally office equipment, like computers and printers. If there were any grant funds available, they were not that large. Even the FEMA grant that funded general emergency management accounted for only about 17 percent of any one agency's budget. Sometimes there were special grants like SARA Title III that funded exercises, but again they were very small, perhaps $3,000 to do an exercise.
Then the 9/11 attacks happened and Congress passed legislation providing Homeland Security Grants (HLSG). It was easy money at first. Rather than requesting it, it was shoved in our hands and we were told to go buy something. This was the beginning of my true Homeland Security Grant addiction. Everyone wanted a piece of the funding pie. We set up committees to orchestrate a process for dividing up the drugs/grant funds. Everyone got hooked on HLSG funding. Fire, police, EMS, hospitals, emergency managers, we all wanted more and more funding to buy the things that vendors kept hawking to us as the latest and greatest piece of equipment.
Soon everyone was clamoring for even more grants to feed their addiction. Special interests lobbied congress to get funds dedicated just for their discipline. Fire, emergency medical services, law enforcement, ports, hospitals and public health all made the trips to the dealer to get their fixes of grants. It was then that we all started "mainlining the money." The money drug went straight into our veins. We didn't try to hide it. Our arms and budgets had track marks where the funds were put in by IV, and we were higher than a kite with all the money and the possibilities of what we could do with it.
More grants were announced. The Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) started small with a limited number of cities and then grew to over 70 cities. All became hooked on the money that was flowing like a river. We snuffed it, melted it and did everything possible to ingest it. Life was good and we could not believe our good fortune.
Sometimes in our more sober moments we'd wonder, "How long can this last?" The money kept flowing from what was a stream in 2002 to an ocean of money coming every year until 2011. Billions of dollars were spent for every possible gadget known to man or vendor. We all wanted our own command vehicles that would be used to support "regional events." Bomb robots, bomb containment vessels, personal protective gear, chemical and biological detectors, filtration devices, entire fleets of boats were purchased. Police and fire departments were not to be outdone by one another. Fireboats, patrol boats, pursuit boats, extended operation boats. If it floated above water or navigated under the water we needed it to fend off the would-be terrorist.
In our drunken overfunded stupor we asked for and got funding for equipment that we didn't have teams to operate. There was so much stuff that we had to buy other equipment like trailers and trucks to haul all of it to potential emergencies. It truly was the best of times and the worst of times. Our co-conspirators were the vendors and consultants that fed off our addiction and our coveting more and more. In the end we woke up with white powder all over our faces and we could not remember what grant was funding what project, and what had to be delivered when, in order to meet the grant guidelines that had tightened up overtime.
Sure there were wrinkles in the process and the funding. The Environmental Historical Preservation (EHP) rules dampened our spirits, but we soon adapted by hiring more contractors to meet those requirements. Audits were done, equipment inventoried and paperwork rules put in place. Our politicians were happy and they, being elected officials, were enablers and in some ways as addicted as ourselves to the funding. After all, if we don't take it someone else will have our share.
All of this looks to be coming to an end. The federal supplier warned us about a year ago that funds would start drying up in 2011. We kept spending and hiring anyway. While there isn't supposed to be any "supplanting" of local funds, if you look at state and local emergency management budgets they have been swollen from previous years, and we are now having a harsh reality check of dealing with less funding. The big boys like New York City have muscled their way to keeping more of the funds and not taking as big a cut, but their time is coming. Even the mighty will have to deal with their addiction eventually.
Tomorrow is my first day at Homeland Security Rehab. I'll find myself in rooms of other people, perhaps sitting in a circle and saying, "I'm Eric, and I'm a Homeland Security Grant Addict." It is the first step to recovery. It will be painful for all of us, for me, for my family and coworkers. I just hope the DTs won't be that bad and maybe they might have some methadone like funding to take away some of the impacts of my going through withdrawal.
Just give me one fix. It won't cost you much and I just need one more little grant, preferably dedicated just to me, please! It hurts so bad I think I’m going to die!
