Funding Overview

The RDPO's work is funded by partner contributions and the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) grant program. 
Our Program Management Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) articulates how this funding is applied.

FUNDING SOURCES

UASI GRANT

Most of the RDPO’s funding comes from the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), which is part of the Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This program provides funding to enhance regional preparedness and capabilities in designated high-threat, high-density areas.

The Oregon Department of Emergency Management (OEM) is the recipient of our region’s UASI grants. OEM is our State Administrative Agency (SAA). The City of Portland hosts the RDPO and is the subrecipient of OEM’s UASI grant awards. RDPO partner organizations are sub-subrecipients.

It can take months to establish subrecipient and sub-subrecipient agreements. So, while OEM’s UASI grant period extends up to 36 months, RDPO sub- and sub-subrecipients only have approximately 18-24 months to complete their work. View the RDPO UASI Timelines for details of active and anticipated upcoming awards.

A key part of this is the Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA). This law requires applicable, federally funded infrastructure projects to use American-made iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials.

Understanding these requirements early is critical. It helps you meet federal mandates, prevent costly procurement delays, and support successful delivery of your FEMA-funded infrastructure projects.

To help grant recipients, subrecipients and contractors apply these standards, FEMA released a set of animated short videos.

Five-Part BABAA Video Training Series

We launched five short training videos to walk you through key BABAA compliance concepts. They are available on the FEMA Buy America Webpage and the FEMA YouTube Channel. 

• BABAA Overview: Introduces the act and explains the rules for FEMA-funded infrastructure projects.

• BABAA Stakeholders: Outlines the roles of FEMA staff, grant recipients, subrecipients and contractors.

• Project-Specific Waivers: Explains when a project-specific waiver is appropriate and how to request one.

• General Applicability Waivers: Describes standard waivers and how they apply to specific types of projects.

• BABAA Categories of Products: Helps you correctly classify materials to meet Buy America standards.

More Tools and Training

For additional guidelines and support, please visit the FEMA Procurement Under Grants Training Webpage to access:

• Two self-paced National Disaster and Emergency Management University certified training courses (Essentials of Procurement Under Grants and Build America, Buy America & Procurement Under Grants: Exigency and Emergency Circumstances).

• A schedule of upcoming live training opportunities and interactive webinars.

For additional information on the BABAA, please visit FEMA's Buy America Preference Webpage.

We highly encourage you and your teams to use these new resources. Please share them with your grants, purchasing and project management teams to help navigate these requirements successfully.

REALLOCATION

When RDPO projects are unable to spend all of their awarded UASI funds, the RDPO pools the funds together and makes them available for redistribution or “reallocation.” Reallocation spending deadlines will depend on which grant cycle they are from. See the RDPO UASI Timelines for more info.

LOCALLY-CONTRIBUTED FUNDS

Each year, local partner organizations contribute funds to the RDPO. This small pot of money allows the RDPO organizational stability, as well as flexibility to fund certain projects that address local disaster preparedness priorities but don’t qualify for UASI funding. Our methodology for determining the cost share is updated yearly. If a project meets all except the UASI eligibility requirements, it may be a good fit for this type of award.