As a result of a one-time infusion of federal funds for national radio interoperability, the flow of dollars for homeland security projects in states and localities might be peaking this year.

The grants are expected to support hundreds of state and local initiatives, such as buying geospatial software for situational awareness in Missouri, constructing a statewide radio system in Colorado and setting up a system in Connecticut to track disaster aid on the Internet.

Government contractors are chasing about $5 billion in opportunities related to those federal grants, which include $3 billion from the Homeland Security Department, $1 billion for emergency preparedness from the Health and Human Services Department, and a special, one-time $1 billion allocation for public safety interoperability from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in coordination with DHS.

“Federal dollars are pouring into the states in almost every category of homeland security,” said Erin Phelps, director of enterprise services and solutions at Ciber Inc., a systems integrator in Denver. “There is a tremendous growth opportunity.”

Those dollars represent a windfall for state and local governments at a time when many local agencies are otherwise tightening their belts. But it is uncertain how long such large pools of money will be available.

Democrats support increasing local funding for preparedness programs, and if they increase their congressional majorities in the November elections, funding levels are likely to remain high. But some foresee a declining interest in homeland security spending as the events of the 2001 terrorist attacks recede further into the past.

“There is a sense that people are expecting less funding,” said Drew Sachs, vice president of crisis and consequence management at James Lee Witt Associates, a Washington consulting firm.

COORDINATED EFFORT
DHS is the largest funding spigot, having funneled billions of dollars to state and local agencies since 2003 to help increase national preparedness. A substantial portion of those awards was spent on contractor goods and services, including information technology systems and services for surveillance, situational awareness, communication, command and control, intrusion detection, identification management, resource tracking, and credentialing.