	Introduction

On May 31, 2006, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced FY2006 allocations of federal homeland security assistance to states and urban areas. That assistance was made available through the following three programs:
the State Homeland Security Grant Program (SHSGP), which is designed to fund state homeland security strategy activities to build first responder and emergency management capabilities to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism and catastrophic events; the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program (LETPP), which focuses on law enforcement and public safety activities to prevent terrorist attacks through such activities as intelligence gathering, information sharing, and target hardening; and the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), which is designed to fund designated high-threat, high-risk urban-area activities to prevent, protect against, and respond to terrorist attacks and catastrophic events. The programs provided funds to address planning, operations, equipment, training, and exercise needs of states and high-threat, high-density urban areas. The purpose of the set of programs was to help recipients build and sustain first responder and emergency management capabilities to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks and catastrophic events. The USA PATRIOT Act guarantees each state an amount of 0.75% of total SHSGP and LETPP appropriations. The remaining appropriation and the appropriation for UASI grants were allocated at the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security. This CRS report explains the FY2003 through FY2006 administrative guidance that governed the three homeland security assistance programs, discusses the changes to DHS requirements for grant applications and subsequent reporting by recipients, describes the DHS grant allocation methods, and identifies pertinent oversight questions that may be of interest to Congress.
On May 31, 2006, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced FY2006 allocations of federal homeland security assistance to states and urban areas. That assistance is made available through the following three programs:
the State Homeland Security Grant Program (SHSGP), which is designed to fund state homeland security strategy activities to build first responder and emergency management capabilities to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism and catastrophic events; the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program (LETPP), which focuses on law enforcement and public safety activities to prevent terrorist attacks through such activities as intelligence gathering, information sharing, and target hardening; and the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), which is designed to fund designated high-threat, high-risk urban-area activities to prevent, protect against, and respond to terrorist attacks and catastrophic events.
The programs provide funds to address planning, operations, equipment, training, and exercise needs of states and high-threat, high-density urban areas. The purpose of the set of programs is to help recipients build and sustain first responder and emergency management capabilities to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks and catastrophic events. The USA PATRIOT Act guarantees each state an amount of 0.75% of total SHSGP and LETPP appropriations. The remaining appropriation and the appropriation for UASI grants are allocated at the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security.
This CRS report explains the FY2003 through FY2006 administrative guidance that governed the three homeland security assistance programs, discusses the changes in DHS requirements for grant applications and subsequent reporting by recipients, describes the DHS grant allocation methods, and identifies pertinent oversight questions that may be of interest to Congress. For information on FY2007 homeland security grant guidance, see CRS Report RL33859, Fiscal Year 2007 Homeland Security Grant Program, H.R. 1, and S. 4: Description and Analysis , by [author name scrubbed] and [author name scrubbed].