Grant Programs Directorate Information Bulletin No. 375 December 22, 2011 MEMORANDUM FOR: All State Administrative Agency Heads All State Agency Points of Contact All Urban Areas Security Initiative Points of Contact All State Homeland Security Directors All State Emergency Management Agency Directors FROM: Elizabeth M. Harman Assistant Administrator Grant Programs Directorate SUBJECT: Impact of the Grants Reporting Tool (GRT) Migration on December 2011 Biannual Strategy Implementation Report (BSIR) The purpose of this Information Bulletin is to notify Grant Programs Directorate (GPD) grantees who submit semi-annual program progress reports through the Grants Reporting Tool (GRT) of GPD’s GRT data migration initiative, and its impact on the December 2011 Biannual Strategy Implementation Report (BSIR) module availability and submission deadline. Historically, GPD releases the December BSIR reporting module during the first week of December each year, providing grantees the opportunity to begin entering data related to grant activity for the July 1st through December 31st timeframe. In coordination with FEMA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), GPD has begun migrating the GRT from the current servers to the FEMA owned server environment. As part of this effort and to ensure that the migration is successful, GPD is prohibited from implementing any modifications to the system until the migration is complete. Due to the migration activity, GPD will not be releasing the December 2011 BSIR until after the New Year. Following the completion of the migration of the GRT onto the FEMA servers, GPD will engage in a period of system testing. Current timelines estimate the December 2011 BSIR module release to be between mid-January and mid-February. All GRT system users will be notified of the BSIR release within a week of the BSIR opening. The deadline for submission will remain 60 days from the date on which the BSIR has been opened. During the migration, grantees will have full access to their GRT data. Any modifications to existing data (change requests, moves to closeout, etc) will be reflected in the GRT once the migration is complete. GPD is waiving the submission of the December BSIR for FY 2011 grant programs contained within the GRT. Therefore the December 2011 BSIR – once released - will only collect information on open FY 2004 through FY 2010 grant programs, and no information will be required to be reported on FY 2011 grant programs through the GRT, In FY 2011, FEMA added five new programmatic requirements within the UASI and SHSP programs under three priorities – Whole Community, Building Prevention and Protection Capabilities, and the Maturation and Enhancement of State and Major Urban Area Fusion Centers. Efforts to incorporate these requirements into GPD’s existing reporting tools are currently underway and additional guidance on those applicable reporting requirements be will be issued by GPD in the near term. Questions regarding this Information Bulletin may be directed to your assigned Program Analyst or the Centralized Scheduling and Information Desk at askcsid@fema.gov or 1-800-368-6498. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Washington, DC 20472 2 U.S. Department of Homeland Security Washington, DC 20472