In President Obama’s executive budget, presented to Congress in February, funding for some programs of importance to the emergency response community were cut—but many escaped reduction. With the fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget unresolved at this writing, the proposed funding for FY 2012 compares to that proposed by the president for 2011.
- State Homeland Security Grant spending would remain at the amount proposed for FY 2011, about $1 billion. This includes $420 million for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response.
- Firefighter Assistance Grants and Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grants are also close to their 2011 proposed figures at $670 million and $35 million, respectively.
- Three critical EMS programs operated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would remain at about the same level as in last year’s proposal, with the EMS Division’s proposed budget at $2.39 million, the Enhance 911 Activities at $1.38 million and National EMS Information System at $2 million.
- Health and Human Services programs that would see little change over their 2011 proposed levels include EMS for Children ($21.5 million), Traumatic Brain Injury (almost $10 million) and Public Health Preparedness and Response ($1.4 billion).
- Several programs are proposed at lower funding levels, including Rural Hospital Flex Grants at $26.2 million, down from $41.2 million in the 2011 proposal.
- A few programs would be zeroed out entirely, including Rural and Community Access to Emergency Devices (proposed at $2.5 million in 2011) and the Preventive Block Grant (previously proposed at $102 million).
The release of the president’s proposal to Congress marks the beginning of the FY 2012 budget debates. His proposal will be revised by Congress before the final budget is adopted.
Health Monitoring System Proposed
In the absence of a comprehensive system for the long-term health monitoring of emergency response workers, federal officials proposed a system of nationwide health surveillance of response workers, detailed in a February 2011 draft report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
The proposed Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance (ERHMS) program would create a nationwide health and safety system and offer specific recommendations and tools to prevent or mitigate potential health problems at each phase of deployment. The goal is to ensure that only medically trained and equipped workers are deployed and protected on site and then effectively monitored for an appropriate period of time post-event.
The system would include credentialing and baseline health screening to assess the ability of responders to serve safely and effectively; training and equipment to prevent exposure to known hazards; on-site monitoring for toxins and other health threats; and long-term physical and mental health follow-up of workers to identify illnesses that might develop from exposures and stress experienced at emergency scenes.
A link to the preliminary ERHMS document is at cdc.gov/niosh/docket/review/docket223/default.html.
Public Health Radio Created
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced the January launch of a radio network that will provide the federal government with the ability to access critical information when the usual communications transmission infrastructure is destroyed or inaccessible.
The National Public Health Radio Network (NPHRN), a project of two CDC emergency response offices, will utilize the high-frequency band—that in the 3 to 30 MHz range—to create an infrastructure-independent way to communicate with 50 states and four municipalities. Among the benefits of this capacity are the ability of the CDC to help, and receive help from, radio networks operated by several federal and local emergency response agencies; improved participation of public health agencies at all levels of disaster coordination; and the capability of the CDC and its partners to participate in regular practice exercises.
Local participants will receive a CDC federal call sign to access NPHRN after they demonstrate they are compliant and certified to certain agency standards. Additional information is at emergency.cdc.gov/nphrn.
Toward Communications Interoperability
To ensure interoperability among users of a national public safety broadband network, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a Third Report and Order establishing Long Term Evolution technology as the platform for 700 MHz band users.
Released with this Order was the Fourth Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM), which proposes new rules to guide the development of an initial technical framework to address many of the issues involved with the creation of a public safety network. It also raises questions, under agency consideration, about the effectiveness of the proposed rules.
In announcing the adoption of the Order and release of FNPRM, FCC officials state that the new and proposed rules are critical to creating a resilient, robust and relevant broadband network for use in daily training and emergencies.
The Order and FNPRM, with the questions under agency consideration, are at fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_
Business/2011/db0204/FCC-11-6A1.pdf.
