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Mass. officials warn federal grant cuts jeopardize emergency preparedness
Summary
State emergency-management and public‑health officials told a joint legislative committee that recent and proposed reductions to federal grants — including EMPG and BRIC cancellations — are forcing program cuts, squeezing municipal capacity, and leaving large resilience projects at risk without swift state action.
Dawn Brantley, director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, told a joint hearing that federal grant reductions are already constraining the state’s ability to prepare for and respond to disasters. "In FY25 MEMA's costs were approximately $24,000,000," Brantley said, noting that roughly 54% of the agency’s funding historically came from federal sources and that a recent 10.11% reduction to the Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) required staff and service cuts.
Brantley described steps MEMA took to balance a lean budget — cutting overtime by more than 20%, eliminating an all‑hazards planner position, and reducing mobile emergency operations center support — and warned that further federal reductions or less predictable Stafford Act declarations would leave the Commonwealth to cover response and recovery costs…
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