The Emergency Planning Grant program, which is administered by the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), is designed to help county emergency planning committees pay the cost of preparing required emergency plans for responding to accidental releases of certain hazardous substances and fulfilling related responsibilities. DMA awarded 144 Emergency Planning Grant program grants totaling $3.0 million from fiscal year (FY) 2023-24 through FY 2024-25. The Regional Emergency Response Grant program, which also is administered by DMA, is designed to help local emergency response agencies replace equipment used to respond to releases of certain hazardous materials. DMA awarded 28 regional emergency response grants totaling $771,800 in FY 2024-25. In general, state grants involve management of the pre-award, active, and closeout stages. For the Emergency Planning Grant program, we identified a closeout stage concern related to program outcomes. For the Regional Emergency Response Grant program, we identified pre-award stage concerns related to application scoring and review as well as policies and procedures; active stage concerns related to modification requests, reporting, grant agreements, and reimbursements; and a closeout stage concern related to program outcomes. We make 18 recommendations to DMA for improvements. We also include two issues for legislative consideration.
