Both Kernan and Davis, who chairs the state's Counter Terrorism and Security Council, are urging Indiana's federal legislators to fight for a formula to guarantee Indiana and other states would receive at least 90 percent of the previous year's first-responder allocation in each of the next two years. "These funds are essential to making sure our local communities and our entire state are protected," Kernan said. "Without these resources, we will not be able to fully implement our plan to both protect Hoosiers and respond quickly and appropriately if an emergency situation occurs."
Currently, both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives versions of the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act change how first responder funding will be distributed -- from a population-based formula to a more threat-based allocation. The proposed threat-based funding formula could result in additional funding being shifted from states with more rural areas and smaller cities to states with the largest urban areas, such as California and New York. While each state could still receive a base amount of funding, these proposed formula changes could result in deeper cuts to Indiana funding levels than for states with smaller populations.
These cuts would be in addition to reductions Congress already made for Indiana's current federal fiscal year first-responder funding. "We expect the state to lose more than $10.5 million for four core first-responder programs assuming Indianapolis receives the same proportionate share of UASI (Urban Areas Security Initiatives) funding as in FFY 2004," Kernan and Davis wrote.
This year's estimated cut for FFY 2005 represents close to 20 percent of the total first-responder funding the state received in FFY 2004. Nationally, first responder funding was reduced by more than $475 million.
"Indiana officials remain fully committed to meeting the goals and objectives of the state's current plan, but we cannot hope to achieve these goals if a significant amount of available funding is shifted to other states," Kernan and Davis added. This is the third time this year Kernan and Davis have called on the federal government to maintain adequate funding for Indiana's homeland security needs, including port security.
The legislation approved by the U.S. House of Representatives also calls for a national Task Force of Essential Capabilities for First Responders, a group designed to help provide guidance and benchmarks to determine threats, risk and capabilities for the states. Kernan and Davis expressed their support for this group, but urged the Indiana delegation to ensure that adequate lead-time and funding consideration is included in any task force recommendations. "We believe, however, that states should be given sufficient time to implement any new standards and planning requirements," the two said in their letter. "We also feel strongly that the Department of Homeland Security should be required to take the findings of this task force into account when making any secondary distribution of first responder grant funds." Indiana's Homeland Security Branch of SEMA works with a number of state and local partners, including Indiana State Police, the Indiana State Department of Health, CTASC and local emergency response agencies.
