[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 113 (Thursday, June 11, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35659-35660]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-12620]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Federal Emergency Management Agency
[Docket ID: FEMA-2020-0008]
Request for Information on Effectiveness in Maintaining and
Improving State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Preparedness
AGENCY: Federal Emergency Management Agency, DHS.
ACTION: Notice and request for information.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is issuing this
Request for Information (RFI) to receive information in response to a
list of priority research questions to further understand existing
evidence on the Homeland Security Grant Program's (HSGP's) influence on
State, local, Tribal, and territorial (SLTT) preparedness. The HSGP
includes a suite of risk-based grants to assist SLTT efforts in
preventing, preparing for, protecting against, and responding to acts
of terrorism. HSGP funding can also be used to enhance preparedness for
other catastrophic events (e.g., hurricanes, wildfires) when the use of
such funds has a nexus to preventing, preparing for, protecting
against, and responding to terrorism.
DATES: Comments must be received by November 9, 2020.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by docket ID FEMA-2020-
0008, by one of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://wwww.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
See the ``Public Participation'' portion of the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section for further instructions on submitting comments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bethany Slater, Program Analyst,
Measures and Standards Branch, National Preparedness Assessment
Division, National Preparedness Directorate, FEMA, DHS, 400 C St. SW,
Washington DC 20472, [email protected], 202-717-4111.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Public Participation
Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name
and docket ID. All submissions will be posted, without change, to the
Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov, and will
include any personal information you provide. Therefore, submitting
this information makes it public. You may wish to read the Privacy and
Security notice, which can be viewed by clicking on the ``Privacy and
Security Notice'' link on the homepage of www.regulations.gov.
You may submit your comments and material by the methods specified
in the ADDRESSES section. Please submit your comments and any
supporting material by only one means to avoid the receipt and review
of duplicate submissions.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov and search for the Docket ID.
II. Background and Purpose
HSGP provides funds to eligible entities to support SLTT efforts to
prevent terrorism and to prepare the Nation for the threats and hazards
that pose the greatest risk to the security of the United States. HSGP
funding can also be used to enhance preparedness for other catastrophic
events (e.g., hurricanes, wildfires) when the use of such funds has a
nexus to preventing, preparing for, protecting against, and responding
to terrorism. Since its creation in 2003, HSGP annually issued between
$850 million and $2.5 billion in grant funding to support SLTT
governments.
As administered by FEMA, HSGP consists of three subcomponent
programs: State Homeland Security Program (SHSP), Urban Area Security
Initiative (UASI), and Operation Stonegarden. See FEMA, Homeland
Security Grant Program, https://www.fema.gov/homeland-security-grant-program (last visited Feb. 28, 2020). This request for information is
limited to SHSP and UASI.
The Homeland Security Act of 2002 authorizes the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS)/FEMA to award SHSP and UASI funding to each
State, territory, and high-risk urban area based on: (1) Its relative
threat, vulnerability, and consequence from acts of terrorism, and (2)
the anticipated effectiveness of the proposed use of the grant to
prepare for, protect against, and respond to acts of terrorism. See 6
U.S.C. 608. Grant dollars are administrated by State Administrative
Agencies who are generally required to pass-through at least 80 percent
of SHSP and UASI funds to local or Tribal jurisdictions. See 6 U.S.C.
604(d)(2)(A), 605(c)(1)(A)-(C).
As the administrator of HSGP, FEMA is interested in identifying
existing evidence, tools and methods to better evaluate the
effectiveness of HSGP as it pertains to maintaining and improving SLTT
and national preparedness. FEMA's National Preparedness Assessment
Division has documented its past and current grant effectiveness
strategy in its document ``Grant Effectiveness Strategic Vision 2.0
Homeland Security Grant Program.'' See FEMA, Grant Effectiveness
Strategic Vision 2.0--Homeland Security Grant Program, https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/186474 (last visited Mar.
26, 2020). The objectives for this vision are:
Objective 1: Implement projects that address State and national
priorities;
Objective 2: Improve capabilities and achieve preparedness
outcomes; and
Objective 3: Manage projects in accordance with Federal standards
and guidance.
The purpose of this RFI is for FEMA to receive information in response
to a list of priority research questions to further understand existing
evidence on the influence of HSGP on SLTT and national preparedness.
FEMA requests information on research studies, program evaluations,
and/or meta-analyses that provide empirical findings relevant to the
research questions outlined below. FEMA is interested in evidence on
the contributions of HSGP-funded projects (or projects that could be
funded through HSGP in the future). Such evidence would ideally include
quantitative measurements of how such projects help maintain or improve
SLTT and national capabilities to prepare for, protect against, respond
to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards and/or the risk of hazards.
Additional broader quantitative research may also be helpful, such as
research pertaining to interventions that help prevent or reduce the
risk that an event will occur, or the impact of such events. Such
research could relate to any of a range of interventions, including
interventions that address public health, environmental conservation,
domestic violence, criminal recidivism, and drug use. Helpful research
may use capacity or capability assessments to measure changes in
outcomes over time after an
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intervention, or may use grant administrative data for evaluation.
Finally, FEMA would also be interested in learning of ongoing or
current studies that are in process, for which study findings will not
be available at the time that comments in response to this notice are
due, such as research question being addressed, sample size, study
timeline, and registry where the study findings will be made available.
This information will assist FEMA understand existing empirical and
other evidence, methods being utilized, available data, and research
gaps to prioritize future evaluation funding. This will also help FEMA
understand if this is an area where limited research and evaluation is
available.
III. List of Questions for Commenters
FEMA seeks information on the following: (1) Existing evidence
regarding HSGP effectiveness, and (2) Evidence from other programs or
research areas that FEMA can rely upon to expand or revise the HSGP
research agenda, such as by changing how FEMA and HSGP grantees and
subgrantees measure outputs/outcomes, assess capacity/capability, and
use grants administrative data for evaluation.
Priority Research Questions for FEMA on HSGP include:
1. What studies and evidence exist on assessing HSGP outcomes? What
are the study, findings, sample, and methods employed? Is there a
URL(s) publicly available with the study report and information?
2. What meta-analysis and/or summaries of evidence exist on the
HSGP program?
Supporting questions specific to HSGP:
3. What outputs and outcomes are HSGP grants achieving?
4. How well does HSGP funding help build and sustain core
capabilities? (https://www.fema.gov/core-capability-development-sheets)
5. How does HSGP funding affect identified capability gaps?
6. Which HSGP funding activities most effectively close capability
gaps?
7. How do participants' KSAs (knowledge, skills, and abilities)
change after completing an HSGP-funded training, after creating or
enhancing an HSGP-funded plan, and/or after completing an HSGP-funded
exercise?
8. How does HSGP funding influence grant recipient preparedness?
9. How well do HSGP investments contribute to preparedness for and
response to real world incidents?
10. How well have HSGP projects reduced the risk of real-world
incidents?
Broader Research Questions
Outputs/Outcomes/Benefits/Success metrics:
11. FEMA is interested in performance management and program
evaluations conducted by HSGP award recipients, beyond what is reported
to FEMA. What additional output and outcome measurements have been
determined as crucial to determining program results and are beyond
FEMA reporting requirements? What were the results of evaluations, if
conducted?
12. What are the best output and outcome metrics to measure
prevention of either a human-caused or natural incident (e.g.,
terrorism, cyber-attack, hurricane)?
13. What are the best output and outcome metrics to measure the
reduction of risk posed by terrorism or other incidents?
14. What is the best way to measure the quality of a planning
document and to measure the improvement in outputs and outcomes
resulting from the planning document's creation?
15. What is the best way to use exercises to measure change or
improvement through exercises?
Capacity/Capability Assessments:
16. Are there specific interventions that would more properly be
the subject of HSGP funding? What is the best way to measure
improvements in grant recipient capabilities due to grant funding?
17. With respect to specific interventions that might properly be
the subject of HSGP funding, if measuring change through self-reported
assessments, what is a feasible expectation for magnitude of
improvement within a specified timeframe?
18. Please provide examples of instruments provided to grant
recipients for self-assessments and which result in information that is
useful for both grant recipients and funders. Of particular interest
are instruments that can be implemented by users with a wide range of
evaluation or measurement experience (i.e., none to expert).
Grant Administration & Evaluation:
19. Have formula or block grants (grants not competitively awarded)
been successfully evaluated for effectiveness? What was the study
design and sample, and what were the findings?
20. How do Federal agencies use administrative data to understand
grant effectiveness in instances when grant implementation is at the
state and local level?
Evidence on Program Impacts and Grant Effectiveness
21. Have impact evaluations been conducted that look at the
difference between a control or comparison group and the treatment
group? What are the study research question(s), design, sample, and
findings? Where can more information on the study be found?
Dissemination of Results:
FEMA staff developed the RFI questions and will analyze the
responses. We expect the analysis period to deepen our vision and
understanding of the relationships between homeland security grants and
overall preparedness.
Rights to Materials Submitted: By submitting material in response
to this RFI, the respondent is agreeing to grant DHS a worldwide,
royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive license to use the
material and to make it publicly available. Further, the respondent
agrees that it owns, has a valid license, or is otherwise authorized to
provide the material to DHS.
This RFI is issued for information and planning purposes only and
does not constitute an offer by the Federal Government to fund, as a
whole or in part, the opportunities referenced herein. This RFI does
not represent a pre-solicitation synopsis or a solicitation and does
not constitute a request for proposal or request for quote.
The Federal Government will not pay for any information or
administrative costs incurred in responding to this RFI; all costs
associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested
party's expense. Any response received will not be used as a proposal
or quote. The responses to this RFI will be reviewed by the Federal
Government and may be used to develop requirements for future needs.
Pete Gaynor,
Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency.
[FR Doc. 2020-12620 Filed 6-10-20; 8:45 am]
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