FEMA has issued the following announcement:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is announcing modifications to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) Notice of Funding Opportunity application submission requirements. This is a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
FEMA recognizes that state, local, tribal, and territorial partners have reprioritized scarce resources to the COVID-19 pandemic response, reducing their ability to fulfill existing application submission requirements before the application deadline on April 30, 2020. As a result, DHS/FEMA is providing the following relief:
- DHS/FEMA will award recipients FY 2020 State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) and Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) grants at the "high end" of their target allocations.
- If not included in the application due April 30, 2020, SHSP and UASI recipients must submit complete project-level information for each SHSP and UASI investment justification as part of the December 2020 Biannual Strategy Implementation Report (BSIR). This includes investment justifications for the four national priority areas and the two required election security projects: one each in the cybersecurity investment justification and the soft targets/crowded places investment justification.
FEMA will evaluate the effectiveness of the projects submitted in the December 2020 BSIR but will not reduce FY 2020 HSGP awards based on this effectiveness review. FEMA will work with recipients to ensure compliance with the national priority area requirements based on the results of the effectiveness review.
Recipients and subrecipients will not be permitted to expend funding under the four national priority areas until the effectiveness of the proposed projects has been reviewed and confirmed by FEMA.
Although we are disappointed that we could not institute the national priorities as envisioned, we feel this is a reasonable compromise until we can fully implement the competitive effectiveness strategy in FY 2021. View Grant Programs Directorate Information Bulletin No. 447 (pdf) for full details.
Read full FEMA announcement (pdf).