[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

[[Page 35660]]

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]
BILLING CODE 9111-46-P