| |
| Upcoming Events: | | | | 2/14 | | SARMA Board of Directors Meeting | | |
| | 2/14 | | SARMA Officers & Committees Meeting | | |
| 2/15
(3 days) | | 2/19
(3 days) | | 2/20
(4 days) | | | More |
|
| |
|
President's Corner
|
| |
Dear Fellow SARMA Members,
When Congress recently reached an agreement to fund the government for the remainder of fiscal year 2012, FEMA's preparedness grants took a significant cut of more than $660 million, largely due to a lack of metrics for measuring the effectiveness of these programs. At the same time, Congress also eliminated individual allocations for state, urban area, transit, and port security grants, and instead created a single pool of grant funds in the process directing FEMA to allocate these funds based on "threat, vulnerability, and consequence to assist high-risk urban areas, States, local and Tribal governments, and other homeland security partners in preventing, preparing for, protecting against, and responding to acts of terrorism."
In taking this stance, Congress has placed a stake in the ground relative to the need for quantifiable metrics to guide future federal investments in homeland security at the state and local level. SARMA agrees with this. In the current budget environment, we believe the United States cannot continue to allocate scarce security dollars without: 1) a better understanding of current risks (i.e., the scope of the problem); 2) accounting for existing capabilities to mitigate these risks; 3) identifying gaps in current capabilities; 4) developing an ability to analyze the effectiveness of alternative solutions for addressing these gaps; and 5) implementing quantifiable metrics for gauging the impact of the options chosen.
Because public sector budgets will continue to shrink in the years ahead, we must spend scarce security dollars in the most informed and meaningful way possible. SARMA stands ready to assist as a non-partisan source of advice and information on risk management tools and techniques to those working to shape sound security policies in this challenging environment.
Wishing you all the best in the New Year,
Kerry
Kerry L. Thomas
President
|
|
|
|
|
|
