The Homeland Security Grants Division (HSGD) is soliciting applications for projects that support stateand regional efforts to improve or sustain interoperable emergency radio infrastructure.

State funds for these projects are authorized under the Texas General Appropriations Act, Article I, Rider 25 for Trusteed Programs within the Office of the Governor. HSGD intends to make $10 million available under this funding announcement. All awards are subject to the availability of appropriated funds and any modifications or additional requirements that may be imposed by law.

1. Regional Councils of Governments; and 
2. State agencies.

Applicants must access the PSO’s eGrants grant management website at https://eGrants.gov.texas.gov to register and apply for funding. 

Projects selected for funding must begin on or after September 1, 2022 and expire on or before August 31, 2024.

Minimum: $2,500

Maximum: None

Match Requirement: None

Grantees must comply with standards applicable to this fund source cited in the Texas Grant Management Standards (TxGMS), Federal Uniform Grant Guidance, and all statutes, requirements, and guidelines applicable to this funding.

Grant projects must be consistent with the program purpose stated above and must be submitted in support of one of the following approved activity areas:

1. Development or enhancement of primary interoperable emergency radio communications infrastructure;
2. Connection to a regional or statewide systems or expansion of a regional system;
3. Improving or establishing tower sites and/or related communications equipment (shelters, generators, etc.); or
4. Enhancement or maintenance of existing capabilities (e.g. life cycle replacement of equipment other than subscriber equipment).

Projects must enhance current capabilities or address capability gaps identified by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) or Texas Interoperable Communications Coalition (TxICC) in either the Texas Statewide Communications Interoperability Plan (SCIP), a COG Regional Communications Interoperability Plan (RICP) or the DPS Report on Interoperable Communications to the Texas Legislature.

Note: Projects that build capabilities will be prioritized over projects that sustain capabilities. Projects that increase voice communications interoperability for counties with the lowest interoperability levels are preferred over other types of communications projects.

1. If a project is funded (once an agency receives a grant award), the planned expenditures must be submitted to and receive validation from the Statewide Interoperability Coordinator (SWIC) prior to purchase.
2. Cities and counties must have a current emergency management plan or be a legally established member of an inter-jurisdictional emergency management program with a plan on file with the Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM). Plans must be maintained throughout the entire grant performance period and must be at least at the Intermediate Level. If you have questions concerning your Emergency Management Plan (preparedness) level, contact your Emergency Management Coordinator (EMC) or your regional Council of Governments (COG). For questions concerning plan deficiencies, contact TDEM at tdem.plans@tdem.texas.gov.

1. Local units of governments must comply with the Cybersecurity Training requirements described in Section 772.012 and Section 2054.5191 of the Texas Government Code. Local governments determined to not be in compliance with the cybersecurity requirements required by Section 2054.5191 of the Texas Government Code are ineligible for OOG grant funds until the second anniversary of the date the local government is determined ineligible. Government entities must annually certify their compliance with the training requirements using the Cybersecurity Training Certification for State and Local Governments. A copy of the Training Certification must be uploaded to your eGrants application. For more information or to access available training programs, visit the Texas Department of Information Resources Statewide Cybersecurity Awareness Training page.

2. Entities receiving funds from PSO must be located in a county that has an average of 90% or above on both adult and juvenile dispositions entered into the computerized criminal history database maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) as directed in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Chapter 66. The disposition completeness percentage is defined as the percentage of arrest charges a county reports to DPS for which a disposition has been subsequently reported and entered into the computerized criminal history system.

Counties applying for grant awards from the Office of the Governor must commit that the county will report at least 90 percent of convictions within five business days to the Criminal Justice Information System at the Department of Public Safety.

3. Eligible applicants operating a law enforcement agency must be current on reporting complete UCR data and the Texas specific reporting mandated by 411.042 TGC, to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) for inclusion in the annual Crime in Texas (CIT) publication. To be considered eligible for funding, applicants must have submitted a full twelve months of accurate data to DPS for the most recent calendar year by the deadline(s) established by DPS. Due to the importance of timely reporting, applicants are required to submit complete and accurate UCR data, as well as the Texas-mandated reporting, on a no less than monthly basis and respond promptly to requests from DPS related to the data submitted.

4. In accordance with Texas Government Code, Section 420.034, any facility or entity that collects evidence for sexual assault or other sex offenses or investigates or prosecutes a sexual assault or other sex offense for which evidence has been collected, must participate in the statewide electronic tracking system developed and implemented by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Visit DPS’s Sexual Assault Evidence Tracking Program website for more information or to set up an account to begin participating.

5. Eligible applicants must be registered in the federal System for Award Management (SAM) database and have an UEI (Unique Entity ID) number assigned to its agency (to get registered in the SAM database and request an UEI number, go to https://sam.gov/).

Failure to comply with program eligibility requirements may cause funds to be withheld and/or suspension or termination of grant funds.

Grant funds may not be used to support the unallowable costs listed in the Guide to Grants or any of the following unallowable costs:

1. Purchasing or maintaining radio subscriber equipment;
2. Amateur radios and equipment, FMS radios, GMRS radios, or other radio equipment that is not P25 compliant;
3. Any expense or service that is readily available at no cost to the grant project;
4. Any use of grant funds to replace (supplant) funds that have been budgeted for the same purpose through non-grant sources;
5. Any other prohibition imposed by federal, state, or local law.

Application Screening: The Office of the Governor will screen all applications to ensure that they meet the requirements included in the funding announcement.

Peer/Merit Review: The Office of the Governor will review applications to understand the overall demand for the program and for significant variations in costs per item. After this review, the Office of the Governor will determine if all eligible applications can be funded based on funds available, if there are cost-effectiveness benefits to normalizing or setting limits on the range of costs, and if other fair-share cuts may allow for broader distribution and a higher number of projects while still maintaining effectiveness.

Final Decisions: The Office of the Governor will consider rankings along with other factors and make all final funding decisions. Other factors may include cost effectiveness, overall funds availability, or state government priorities and strategies, legislative directives, need, geographic distribution, balance of focuses and approaches, or other relevant factors.

The Office of the Governor may not fund all applications or may only award part of the amount requested. In the event that funding requests exceed available funds, the Office of the Governor may revise projects to address a more limited focus.

For more information, contact the eGrants help desk at eGrants@gov.texas.gov or (512) 463-1919.