Office of Grants and Training Preparedness Directorate U.S. Department of Homeland Security Washington, DC 20531 G&T Information Bulletin No. 243, February 28, 2007 TO: All State Administrative Agency Heads All State Administrative Agency Points of Contact All State Homeland Security Directors Transit Security Chiefs Rail and Intracity Bus System Points of Contact FROM: Corey D. Gruber Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Grants and Training Kip Hawley Assistant Secretary, Transportation Security Administration SUBJECT: Focusing the Transit Security Grant Program on Security Training This information bulletin applies to Fiscal Year (FY) 2005, FY 2006, and FY 2007 Transit Security Grant Program (TSGP) funds for both Tier I and Tier II transit systems. Recent assessments and evaluations have highlighted the fact that security training for front-line employees of transit systems is a critical vulnerability that must be addressed as soon as possible. As such, transit systems that submit investment justifications for security training for front-line employees, including courses that train-the-trainer, will receive elevated priority, including expedited funding, in the FY 2007 TSGP for both Tier I and Tier II. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will also consider reprogramming requests for FY 2005, FY 2006, and FY 2007 grant awards. Tier I systems are invited to submit requests for any remaining FY 2006 allocated funding within their region. Only underground or underwater tunnel infrastructure ranks as high as security training among our security priorities. Tier II transit systems should submit investment justifications for security training initiatives to address their security training requirements. These investments will be given elevated priority when the investment justifications are evaluated for funding merit, and will be funded before other projects as this has been identified as a critical nation-wide need and priority. Tier II investment justification submissions are due March 6, 2007 via their State Administrative Agency (SAA) through Grants.gov. Given the proximity of this deadline, transit systems are only required to submit a placeholder investment justification for security training by March 6, 2007. Tier II transit systems will be given until March 20, 2007, to submit their completed security training investment justification, including final funding requests. The placeholder investment justification only needs to indicate that the transit system intends to submit a full investment justification for security training by March 20, 2007, and no details will need to be provided by March 6, 2007. The deadline to complete and submit all other investment justifications in Grants.gov is still March 6, 2007. Investment justifications for Tier I systems are not due until 90 days after the grant award. However, DHS is committed to releasing funds to Tier I transit systems for training projects as soon as pre-approved investment justifications are submitted. This means that Tier I systems can submit training investments through their SAA to the G&T Secure Portal (https://odp.esportals.com/) as early as they would like (without awaiting the submission of all investment justifications from the region), and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will immediately consider those requests. Funds will be released to the SAA within one month of receiving the training investment justification, and the SAA must release the funds to the transit system within 60 days of the award. All transit systems under both Tier I and Tier II will be required to complete the associated security training within one year of the award of funding. Transit systems will also be required to provide status updates on their training as part of their quarterly reporting requirement. This emphasis on training will likely continue in future grant cycles, including the FY 2008 TSGP. (It is important to note, however, that addressing underground/underwater tunnel risks is still the number one priority for funding.) With this emphasis on training, it is DHS’ intention to ensure that all transit systems remediate security training weaknesses utilizing FY 2006, FY 2007 and FY 2008 TSGP funds. Continuing in FY 2008, training projects may be given priority over other projects if the transit system still has security training requirements. To streamline the process, TSA has developed a training cost matrix. Transit systems that elect to submit must use this matrix to determine the amount of funding pre-approved through the grant process for training classes, depending on the type of course and the type of employees being trained. Transit systems should ask for the exact amount of funds as derived from the matrix to ensure compliance with pre-approved costs, and to expedite the award process, as the matrix represents approved cost estimates. Additional costs above the pre-approved amount will not be funded within this grant program. The matrix includes different types of training, employee categories, and course duration, as well as indications of what types of employees should receive what type of training. On the “Data Entry” sheet transit systems should enter in the number of employees in each category that should receive a certain type of training. The matrix will automatically calculate the training cost based on course type, number of employees receiving training, and course duration. This training matrix will constitute the required “detailed budget” component of the grant application, along with the investment justification. Also, to facilitate the investment justification development and submission process, transit systems will not be required to complete all of the investment justification. Rather, only the following questions must be addressed in the investment justification for training projects: 2 • II.A: Provide a brief abstract for this investment. • III.B: Discuss how the implementation of this investment will decrease or mitigate risk. • IV.A: Investment Funding Plan. • IV.E: Provide a high-level timeline, milestones and dates, for the implementation of this investment. TSA will also develop an approved vendor source list that will be provided to transit systems after they receive their award and are developing the specifics of the training program. In addition to focusing the TSGP on security training, this IB releases transit systems from the requirement to obtain approval of their investment justifications from all eligible systems in a region. Accordingly, modify the sentence found on page 34 of the TSGP, Appendix 4 to read “Investment Justifications must be approved by the applicable SAA(s) in the region.” Submissions procedures otherwise remain unchanged. For other questions regarding the FY 2007 TSGP, please contact the G&T Centralized Scheduling and Information Desk at 1-800-368-6498, or via email at askcsid@dhs.gov. 3 Fiscal Year/Tier Option and Process Matrix for Security Training Initiatives Fiscal Year Tier Options Available Process 2005 Tier I and Tier II Reprogram funds Must submit a request to DHS (via your SAA) to reprogram the existing funds from unspent funds on awarded projects to the training security initiative 2006 Tier II Reprogram funds Must submit a request to DHS (via your SAA) to reprogram the existing funds from unspent funds on awarded projects to the training security initiative Tier I 1) Reprogram funds Must submit a request to DHS (via your SAA) to reprogram the existing funds from unspent funds on awarded projects to the training security initiative 2) Use “leftover” funds (within the region) Not all FY06 funds will be allocated in the first round of reviews. All regions will have leftover funds with which transit systems within those regions can use for security training investments. Details on this next “re-compete” round will be forthcoming after the FY06 award announcements have been made. 2007 Tier II 1) Submit investment justifications (IJs) for security training projects 1) To submit an eligible IJ for security training for FY07 TSGP, you must complete and submit: • The training cost matrix • Questions II.A, III.B, IV.A, and IV.E of the IJ (no other questions need to be answered) “Placeholder” investment justifications for security training must be submitted by the submission deadline on March 6. Final IJs for security training must be submitted by March 20, 2007. All submissions must be made by the SAA. 2) Reprogram funds 2) We recognize that, due to SAA and state-level requirements, some transit systems will have already submitted their final IJs and cannot update them before the initial submission deadline of March 6, or gain approval to submit a completed security training IJ by March 20, 2007. Therefore, after the award decisions are made, transit systems can go back and submit a reprogramming request to DHS (via your SAA) to reprogram funds from unspent funds on approved IJs to the training security initiative Tier I Submit investment justifications (IJs) for security training projects To submit an eligible IJ for security training for FY07 TSGP, you must complete and submit: • The training cost matrix • Questions II.A, III.B, IV.A, and IV.E of the IJ (no other questions need to be answered) Tier I transit systems can submit training investments as early as they like (still submitted by the SAA through www.grants.gov), without the rest of the investments from that region. DHS will consider training investments as they are submitted, and act on them no later than one month of receipt. 4