A State Homeland Security Plan to Work with Federal Entities during Times of Crisis

A State Homeland Security Plan to Work with Federal Entities during Times of Crisis

Opportunities for enhancing overall preparedness

In order to improve readiness on emergency, the Governor should ensure that emergency response programs are practice regularly. This is to ensure that in case of particular advancement in technology the group is capable to know and establish the solution. There are opportunities that can be used in promoting preparedness within the county. The Governor should ensure that his county gets access to the money given. For instance the acting secretary of DHS announced the release of 2020 notice of funding opportunity for eight DHS preparedness grant programs of about 1.8billion dollars. The grant programs offers funding to the state, tribal, local as well as territorial government among others. These funds aim to promote the countries readiness in preventing, responding mitigating, and recovering from terror attacks and disasters that may befall the nation.  Additionally, there is an opportunity of receiving grants from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in case of an extreme emergency situation (Gaines & Kappeler, 2019). Through FEMA the Governor can receive Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) grants to prevent and extinguish fires on public and private territories. However, this grant can only be accepted if the fire seems to become a disaster. Additionally, there is an opportunity to access Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) that is accessible when an issue is declared a disaster by the president. The aim of HMGP is to reduce further risk and damages causes by the disaster. Furthermore, the Governor should be registered with Pre-Disaster Mitigating Grant Program (PDM) that is focused at reducing damage and preventing injuries begore a disaster is experienced. This program is significant in increasing awareness to the public about the damage that may take place and how they should do in case it occurs.

Challenges to gaining access to these federal capabilities

There are several challenges that are associated with gaining access to federal capabilities especially in awarding grants. To begin with, the awarding agencies do not have systematic sharing grantee risk information. Sharing of information is not frequent and oversight on the progress of activities is poor and requires an improvement. Additionally, Most of the grantees do not have an effective financial management system that is needed to offer effective accountability of how the federal funds are used. For instance if a governor is given grants to cater for disasters, in case the disaster occurs they are unable to indicate the amount used and how it was used.  In most cases oversight turn to be a challenge since there is no financial reports and records that can be used to show how the money has been used. Additionally, the access is faced by the challenge of implementing DATA Act that establishes the way different governments and bodies spend federal grants, loans and contracts. Again, some institutions are unable to access federal capabilities because of eligibility issues. Some counties are not eligible to grants because they do not meet some requirements that are outlined when applying for the grants. In such case they should ensure that they fulfill all the requirements before applying. Other challenges are associated to configuration management, segregation of duties and access to financial records. This is a challenge as it affects the way in which institutions are managing financial data. Lack of proper financial records results to misuse of some finances and when the federal come to audit they find out misuse hence putting the institution on probation.

Obstacles to gaining access to and using federal assets

There are various obstacles that are hindering the access and use of federal assets. To start with, lack of information and knowledge that there are federal assets that can be used by the public in case of disaster. Most people are not aware that the federal government is obligated at taking care of its citizens during a disaster. This makes them not to seek for a chance to use these assets. In this case the public should be informed about the availability of the assets that they can use and how they can get them. Here, they should be given the procedure to follow in order to access them and appropriate time to request for these assets. All the requirements should be communicated to the public at the right time. Another obstacle is corruption within the federal government. Corruption has turned out to be a major hindrance of accessing federal assets since the leaders are using them for their private benefits. In most cases the assets put aside for the public ends up in the hands of leaders to distribute to the citizens but they divert them in their personal use. At the same time some leaders expects to be paid by the public in order to allow them access and use federal assets. Therefore, if the public does not have money to pay they end up not getting these assets.

More so, there is the barrier of not having enough assets to be used by all individuals. The federal government does not have adequate resources to ensure that the entire public can access the assets. Due to this factor assets are only available for few individuals who are aware of such benefits. The government should ensure that they have enough resources to supply their assets and services to everyone. Besides, there is a problem of not having assets near to the public. Most individuals have to travel far to access and use some of the federal assets since they are minimal in their regions. This factor demotivates them from seeking the access since they even have to incur more cost in terms of money and time before gaining the access. In order to break the barrier, it is essential for leaders to ensure that federal assets are located near to the user at all times to minimize the cost incurred when looking for their access.

Plan to attract more IC assets to support to Fusion Centers

Fusion center is a locally operated institution that is located and known by every Governor. Fusion centers were formed after the 9/11 attacks that left most people dead and properties destroyed. Fusion center is mandated at addressing prevention of crime, investigation and response to the crimes. Therefore, the concept of fusion center is indicated to be a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that offer resources, labor  and information to the center in order to increase the capability to detect, prevent investigate and respond to criminal and terrorist activities. Since 2004, there have been concerts conducted with an aim of establishing states and major urban areas fusion center all over the country (Regan, Monahan & Craven, 2015). In order to attract more IC assets to supports fusion centers in every assets there is a strategy that can be deployed. First, it is worth to educate the public and potentials supporters on the importance of these centers. This will help in creating awareness and helping them to know why it is significant to give their assets as a way of supporting its operations. Then, the states can organize concerts that will attract different stakeholders who will understand better the role of these centers. Consecutively, it can be advisable to conduct a fund rising that will help them to collect some funds that will be used in its operations. It should also be opened for the public who woulod like to be shareholders. Despite it being a non-profit making institution, it can get shareholders who can be willing to offer support to the centers even if they are not earning anything in return. This is because there are individuals who can like to be volunteers in these centers by either offering financial supports or their knowledge.

References

Gaines, L. K., & Kappeler, V. E. (2019). Homeland Security and Terrorism. Pearson.

White, J. R. (2016). Terrorism and homeland security. Cengage Learning.

Regan, P. M., Monahan, T., & Craven, K. (2015). Constructing the suspicious: Data production, circulation, and interpretation by DHS fusion centers. Administration & Society, 47(6), 740-762.