Feingold Calls for Increase in Emergency Management Funding

FEINGOLD CALLS FOR INCREASE IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT FUNDING

Feingold Part of Bipartisan Effort to Increase Funding for State and Local Government Emergency Response Systems

U.S. Senator Russ Feingold is part of a bipartisan effort to increase funding for the Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) program. The EMPG program was created to assist in developing an effective emergency response system at the state and local government levels to handle disasters and emergencies of all types and sizes. In a letter to Senate appropriators, the bipartisan group of senators not only seeks to restore funding that was cut in the President's budget, but also seeks to increase funding for a program that is historically underfunded.

"With images of Katrina's devastation still fresh in our memories and a continuing need to improve our homeland security, it is inexplicable why the President has proposed to cut funds for the very programs and initiatives designed to protect our homes and communities," Feingold said. "We must make a serious commitment to improving our emergency response capabilities and that includes adequately funding the EMPG program to help with rapid response when disaster strikes."

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the EMPG program has been used to increase state and local preparedness around the country. The EMPG program gives the flexibility to allocate funds according to risk in order to address the most urgent state and local needs.

"In August of last year, Hurricane Katrina dramatically demonstrated the increased need for every state and local government to have strong emergency management capability in preparation for all disasters," read the letter. "State and local governments cannot be expected to take on the ever-growing homeland security mission without adequate resources to do the job."

http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/releases/06/04/20060405.html