Homeland security in Virginia : Working toward a more secure commonwealth

Nearly four years after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, vulnerabilities remain in homeland security preparedness both nationally and in the commonwealth. A national survey of city mayors found, for example, that only one in 10 cities had received first-responder funding by Aug. 1, 2003, which at the time confirmed that “the long-sought federal funding for our cities’ first responders has been both diluted and delayed.” i Since 2001, more than $23 billion has been appropriated to support state and local preparedness efforts, but it is estimated that between $8 billion and $9 billion is still unspent and sitting in the administrative pipeline at multiple governmental levels. Increasingly, Congress and other leaders are demanding greater accountability of how homeland security funds are spent and the return on investment in this critical function. Because Virginia is home to many defense installations and federal agencies, it is a “target-rich” environment. By James Bohland, Jody Hershey, and Helen Horton