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Amendment to emergency management bill adds spending guardrails, reporting and $500,000 for ready-response grants
Summary
Representative Felvis presented amendments to the emergency management bill to clarify release of previously appropriated public-safety communications funds, extend spending to three years, require periodic reports, and appropriate $500,000 to a ready-response grant program; members signaled informal support.
The House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee on March 24 examined amendments to an emergency management bill (referred to in the hearing as bill 935) that add detail to public-safety communications work and set reporting and spending guardrails. Representative Felvis, presenting the changes from appropriations, said the intent was to make the statute’s requirements more concrete and to limit automatic release of previously reserved funds without legislative review.
Felvis told the committee the amendment replaces the former section 12 with a new structure. In subsection a, the amendment requires that money previously reserved cannot be released without General Assembly approval and describes a staged release. On the record Felvis cited three steps and amounts as described to appropriations: "You scribe the first step of the 2,250,000, understanding that. You described the second step of the $190,000 ... And then the third step was the 4,500,000." He said the committee expanded the implementation timeline from two to three years to allow the Department of Public Safety and partners to complete tasks; "If the Department of Public Safety can do it in only 2 years, that's great," Felvis said.
Felvis said the amendment spells out expected deliverables: implement a mobile radio network, design one or more proofs of concept, and build out or improve 10 or more land-mobile-radio (LMR) sites with antenna deployment at existing chosen sites. He also described reporting requirements: three reports spread over the three-year spending period to track progress and spending.
On grant programs, Felvis said the amendment authorizes the Agency of Administration to support creation of an emergency and all-hazards rescue grant program but leaves funding to the agency if it can be found; in section 13(b) appropriations staff inserted a $500,000 general-fund appropriation to the Department of Public Safety for a "ready response" grant program. "You have originally asked for 1000000000 dollars. In appropriations, we appropriated 500,000," Felvis said on the record.
Felvis said staff had consulted with the Department of Public Safety, E-911, GovOps and JFO to trace prior appropriations and determine what funds remain available and what further legislative approvals would be needed to release additional amounts.
Representative remarks in this transcript reflect committee-level amendment preparation and an informal thumbs-up by members; the transcript does not record a final roll-call floor vote on the revised bill text in this hearing.
