Sneak Preview: DHS To Provide Rationale for Terrorism Prevention Award Decisions
(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants 360 article.) The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will update its Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) grants management plan by September to better document the rationale for making future TVTP award decisions, in response to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendation aimed at avoiding the confusion that resulted from DHS’ pre-award procedures under the prior Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) grant program.
DHS’ federal fiscal year (FY) 2016 appropriation included $50 million to help address emergent threats from violent extremism and from complex, coordinated terrorist attacks. In 2017, DHS eventually designated $10 million of that funding to 26 recipients under the new CVE program to enable state and local governments and nongovernmental organizations to respond to CVE. Unlike traditional counterterrorism activities, which typically involve law enforcement investigations, CVE focuses on reducing individual and societal risk factors associated with violent extremism aimed at prevention, and intervening to dissuade individuals on the path to violence. From 2010 through 2019, data collected through DHS’ Extremist Crime Database show that 205 deaths resulted from 59 violent extremist attacks in the U.S.
Although DHS has not received another appropriation specifically for countering violent extremism since FY 2016, the agency’s FY 2020 appropriation provided $10 million for TVTP grants, described by DHS as the successor to the CVE program. DHS’ Office for Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention, which was responsible for coordinating DHS’ CVE programs and activities, will oversee future TVTP grant awards.
GAO found that DHS generally followed OMB’s uniform guidance requirements by publicizing the CVE grant program through a grant announcement and providing the various required data elements, as well explaining the merit review process and how it would score applicants. DHS also provided information in the grant announcement as to how it intended to allocate funding under the CVE program’s five focus areas ― developing resilience, training and engagement, managing interventions, challenging the narrative and building capacity.
However, while DHS included selection criteria during the grantmaking process, it did not document how its review of these criteria, nor the awards resulting from this process, were consistent with the grant announcement. DHS originally had selected 31 intended awardees for CVE grants, but nine months later, it added three new selection criteria ― (1) affiliation with or support from law enforcement; (2) effectiveness through proven outcome measures; and (3) resource dedication and sustainability, including evidence of cost-sharing ― and subsequently revised its list of recipients. DHS officials stated that they were “free to accept or reject the original list” because they “had discretion under the grant announcement to consider other factors and information in order to make award decisions.”
(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)
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