the preparation, planning, mitigation, response and recovery stages of emergencies. The main mission of the Citizen Corps is to utilize every resource by means of education, training, and volunteer service to local security and readiness to respond to threats of terror, crime, health issues, and disasters. CCP allocations are determined using the USA PATRIOT Act formula, which specifies that each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico will receive a minimum of 75 percent of the total available grant funding. This leaves the remaining 25 percent of the total available grant funding to be allocated to the four territories of American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The balance of CCP funds are to be distributed on a population-share basis among all of the recipients. Funding controversy Some criticism of the Homeland Security Grant Program has come from the distribution of funds. Not unlike other federal funding programs, the HSGP distributes a portion of funding based on population and distributes the remainder of funding evenly. For its part, the HSGP distributes 60% of funds on the basis of population, and the other 40% is evenly spread across all recipients regardless of population. Wyoming for instance, despite being the least populous state, received more funding per capita in homeland security grants than any other state in 2004. At $45.22 per citizen of the state, Wyoming received more than four times the amount of funding per citizen given to either California or New York. Another criticism has come from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in regards to the risk-based grant methodology. Although the GAO concluded that the overall risk-based methodology (threat, vulnerability and consequences) was reasonable, the absence of a proper way to measure variations in vulnerability greatly reduce the value of the vulnerability portion of the assessment. Ultimately, they concluded that the vulnerability measure as part of its risk analysis model should be amended to better capture variations in vulnerability across the different states and urban areas it assesses. News "SoCal gets nearly $53m in Homeland Security funds", Associated Press, 8/9/2010 See also Homeland Security Act Operation Virtual Shield Surveillance MATRIX Fusion center References Further reading Books "Terrorism Preparedness Grant Programs" in A legal guide to homeland security and emergency management for state and local governments, Ernest B. Abbott, Otto J. Hetzel (eds.), American Bar Association, 2005, p. 104 Steffen