Virginia emergency managers ask lawmakers to fund permanent positions and boost local pass‑throughs

Jessica Robinson, president of the Virginia Emergency Management Association, and Brian Meisner, the group’s legislative co‑chair, told the Transportation and Public Safety Subcommittee the Commonwealth needs more stable funding and local capacity for emergency management.

Robinson said the association represents about 900 emergency management professionals across government, health care, education and the private sector and described the core work of emergency managers: hazard and vulnerability assessments, relationship building across stakeholders, local emergency operations plans, community preparedness outreach and exercises. “We spend our days planning for the worst days we hope will never come,” Robinson said.

Meisner told the panel that only about 25% of political subdivisions report having a full‑time emergency manager whose primary job is emergency management and that the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) funds roughly 65% of its core functions with competitive and formula federal grant awards. He said that heavy reliance on federal grants is not sustainable and creates vulnerability to continuing resolution environments in Washington, where funding timetables and award cycles can be delayed.

The presenters urged the legislature to consider the governor’s request to stabilize staffing by transitioning roughly 81 positions from federal grant funding to general fund support; they said the agency requested approximately $1.56 million to begin that transition. They also asked the committee to consider increasing local pass‑through amounts (the presenters noted a current common pass‑through of about $7,500 to localities) so jurisdictions could afford at least a baseline local capability — the presenters suggested a matched example that might look like $50,000 local/$50,000 match as a target level for a meaningful local grant.

Robinson and Meisner described mitigation as cost‑effective: they cited widely used federal research showing that each dollar invested in mitigation saves multiple dollars in later recovery costs. They said public outreach and preparedness training are staff‑intensive and that localities without dedicated professionals have varying success responding to and recovering from disasters.

Legislators thanked the presenters and noted recent state responses to a Central Virginia water crisis and recent earthquakes and fires around the country. The transcript records no formal committee vote; the presenters asked lawmakers to consider HB 1992 (bill carried by a delegate present) and to adopt funding that would make some VDEM positions a permanent line‑item rather than being grant dependent.