The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it plans to disburse $235m for port security grants in the 2011 fiscal year, an 18-percent drop for 2010 funding.

This is the 12th round of grants since the Department of Homeland Security began making them available in 2002 for ports to bolster their defenses against terrorist attacks.

FEMA, which manages all DHS grant programs, established the tier system to allocated port security grants to the locations that face the highest risk for terrorist incursions. FEMA said that the seven Tier I ports and 48 Tier II ports are eligible for grants.

In 2010 the Tier 1 ports, Los Angeles and Long Beach together, San Francisco Bay, Delaware Bay (Philadelphia and Wilmington, Del.), New York-New Jersey, Puget Sound (Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.) Houston-Galveston, received a total of $173m in port security grants.

Congress is still debating the program for 2012, but Susan Monteverde, vice president of government relations for the American Association of Port Authorities, said that a House panel is poised to slash the entire grant program by 55 to 60 percent.

Source: JOC Sailings