46 U.S.C. § 70107 — Grants

(a) In General — The Secretary must set up a grant program that gives out money based on risk. The money helps port authorities, facility operators, and state and local agencies pay for Area Maritime Transportation Security Plans, facility security plans, and training public safety personnel under section 70132. Before giving out a grant, the Secretary must let the Federal Maritime Security Coordinators and the Maritime Administrator review and comment. The Secretary must consider national economic, energy, and defense concerns, based on the newest risk assessments. (b) Eligible Costs — Grant money can pay for costs that fix Coast Guard–identified port security gaps and help meet Area Maritime Transportation Security Plans and facility security plans, including: (1) salary, benefits, overtime, retirement contributions, and other costs of extra Coast Guard–required security staff; (2) buying, running, and maintaining security equipment or facilities — like monitoring and recording systems, security gates and fences, marine barriers, security lighting, remote surveillance, hidden video systems, security vessels, and other security infrastructure that protects passengers, cargo, or crew. Grants cannot pay to build buildings, except ones built under the terms of the Stafford Act (42 U.S.C. § 5196(j)(8)) and specifically approved by the Secretary. Costs under this item are capped at the greater of $1,000,000 per project, or a higher amount the Secretary approves — but never more than 10% of the total grant; (3) screening equipment that detects weapons of mass destruction and conventional explosives, plus testing and evaluating that equipment; (4) vulnerability assessments and security recommendations; (5) exercises or training to prevent, detect, prepare for, respond to, or recover from terrorist attacks; (6) setting up or improving ways to share terrorism threat information that work with federal, state, and local systems; (7) equipment (including software) to receive, send, handle, and store classified information; and (8) training public safety personnel to enforce, or help enforce, a security zone under section 70132. (c) Matching Requirements — (1) Normally, federal money cannot cover more than 75% of an eligible project's cost. (2) Exceptions: (A) Projects costing $25,000 or less need no matching funds. (B) If the Secretary decides a project deserves support but can't happen without more federal help, the Secretary can approve a different match rate. (C) Training grants to prepare public safety personnel to enforce security zones need no matching funds. (d) Coordination and Cooperation Agreements — The Secretary must make sure grant-funded projects in any port area are coordinated with other projects there, and may require port users to sign cooperative agreements for grant-funded work. (e) Multiple-Year Projects — (1) The Secretary may sign letters of intent committing future funding to authorities, operators, and agencies. (2) No more than 20% of a fiscal year's grant money can go to projects spanning multiple years. (f) Consistency With Plans — The Secretary must make sure each grant under subsection (e): (1) supports the relevant Area Maritime Transportation Security Plan in a coordinated way; and (2) is coordinated with any applicable state or urban-area homeland security plan. (g) Applications — Any entity covered by an Area Maritime Transportation Security Plan can apply for a grant, in whatever form and with whatever information the Secretary requires. (h) Reports — Within 180 days of the SAFE Port Act becoming law, the Secretary (through the Coast Guard Commandant) must report to Congress, in a secure format, on the method used to allocate port security grants by risk. (i) Administration — (1) The Secretary must require eligible port authorities, facility operators, and state and local agencies to submit applications, with appropriate review and payment processes. (2) Each application for payment or reimbursement must include, at minimum: (A) a copy of the relevant Area Maritime Transportation Security Plan or facility security plan; (B) a full description of why the project is needed and how it relates to that plan; and (C) a determination from the Captain of the Port that the project fixes identified security gaps and supports compliance with the plans. (3) The Secretary must set up accounting, reporting, and review rules by regulation, to make sure grant money is used properly, accounted for, and recovered if unused or misused. (4) The Secretary can approve a payment or reimbursement only if satisfied that: (A) the project matches Coast Guard vulnerability assessments and supports the plans; (B) enough non-federal money is available to cover the rest of the cost; (C) the project will finish without unreasonable delay; and (D) the recipient has the authority to carry it out. (j) Audits and Examinations — A grant recipient must keep records the Secretary requires and make them available for review and audit by the Secretary, the Comptroller General, or the department's Inspector General. (k) Reports on Security Funding and Compliance — (1) Within 6 months of this Act's enactment, the Secretary must send Congress an unclassified report that: (A) proposes and justifies funding to fix Coast Guard–identified port security gaps and support plan compliance for fiscal years 2003–2008; and (B) projects funding for that same period for five named security programs: the Sea Marshall program, the Automated Identification System and vessel-entry polling, maritime intelligence requirements, transportation security card issuance under section 70105, and the secure-transportation-systems certification program. (2) As part of that same report, the Secretary, with the Commissioner of Customs, must report projected spending on screening and detection equipment and cargo security programs for 2003–2008. (3) Every year after that first report, until October 1, 2009, the Secretary must send Congress an unclassified annual report on progress toward fixing security gaps and complying with the plans. Each annual report must: (A) flag any funding changes needed; (B) assess how the grant program is going; (C) recommend improvements; and (D) for a port the Secretary picks, describe how that port's security has improved under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002. (l) Authorization of Appropriations — Congress may spend up to $400,000,000 a year for fiscal years 2007 through 2013 to run this grant program. (m) Investigations — (1) The Secretary must investigate, fund pilot programs, and award grants to develop: (A) better ways to target vessels, cargo, crew, or passengers for inspection; (B) equipment to detect explosives and chemical or biological agents; (C) equipment to detect nuclear or radiological materials, including scintillation-based detectors; (D) better tags and seals to track shipping containers, including sensors that track a container through its whole supply chain, detect hazardous materials inside, and report to law enforcement; (E) tools, including satellite tracking, to better monitor maritime areas and spot threats to facilities, vessels, and infrastructure near navigable waters, including underwater; (F) tools to lessen the harm from a transportation security incident on or near navigable waters, including sensors and coordination tools; (G) ways to apply technology from other industries to port security; (H) better container designs, including blast-resistant containers; and (I) ways to make port facilities more secure and resilient during an incident, including specialized inspection facilities. (2) Implementation of technology — (A) The Secretary may run pilot projects at U.S. ports to test new detection and screening technologies, projects protecting ports and nearby infrastructure (including underwater), and tools for responding to incidents. (B) Congress may spend up to $35,000,000 a year for fiscal years 2005–2009 on this pilot work. (3) National Port Security Centers — (A) The Secretary may give grants or sign agreements with nonprofit colleges and universities to research port security through National Port Security Centers. (B) A school (or group of schools) applies in the form the Secretary requires. (C) The Secretary picks grant recipients competitively, based on: (i) whether the applicant has the staff, labs, and resources to do the research; (ii) the applicant's ability to lead on national and regional port-security solutions; (iii) whether the applicant already runs a nationally recognized program relevant to maritime safety and education; (iv) whether the research covers major ports on the East, Gulf, and West Coasts, along with relevant federal agencies; and (v) whether the applicant has a strategic plan for the research. (4) Administrative provisions — (A) Before giving a grant, the Secretary must check with other federal agencies to avoid duplicating already-funded work. (B) The Secretary must set accounting, reporting, and review rules by regulation to make sure funds are used properly and unused amounts are recovered. (C) Grant recipients must keep spending records and make them available to the department's Inspector General and the Secretary for audit. (5) Annual review and report — The department's Inspector General must review these programs every year to check spending matches their purpose, and report findings to the relevant Senate and House committees.