This competitive grant program helps support critical port infrastructure to protect against terrorism, enhance maritime domain awareness and improve port-wide maritime security risk management. Further purposes eligible for grants include maintaining or reestablishing maritime security mitigation protocols that support port recovery and resiliency capabilities.
The funding is part of $275m for six competitive preparedness grant programs in fiscal 2016. In total, the Department of Homeland Security is allocating more than $1.6bn this year to assist states, urban areas, nonprofit agencies and the private sector with their preparedness efforts.