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<br />Preparedness Grants Manual
<br />By addressing these priorities, which are reflective of proven best practices, emergency
<br />communications can be significantly improved at all levels of government. The end goal is to ensure
<br />operable, interoperable, and resilient communications that maintain a continuous flow of critical
<br />information, under all conditions, among multi-jurisdictional and multi-disciplinary emergency
<br />responders, command posts, agencies, critical infrastructure sectors, and government officials for
<br />the duration of an emergency response operation, and in accordance with NIMS and the National
<br />Emergency Communications Plan, which describes goals and objectives for improving emergency
<br />communications nationwide.
<br />To help meet this goal, the SAFECOM Guidance outlines requirements for grant applications,
<br />including alignment to national, regional, and state communications plans (e.g., National Emergency
<br />Communications Plan (NECP), Statewide Communication Interoperability Plan (SCIP), Tactical
<br />Interoperability Communications Plan (TICP), FEMA Regional Emergency Communications Plan
<br />(RECP)), project coordination, and technical standards for emergency communications technologies.
<br />SCIPs define the current and future direction for interoperable and emergency communications
<br />within a state or territory, while TICPs are designed to allow urban areas, counties, regions,
<br />states/territories, tribes, or federal departments/agencies to document interoperable
<br />communications governance structures, technology assets, and usage policies and procedures. In
<br />addition, FEMA’s formal planning process has produced 10 RECPs and their associated state and/or
<br />tribal/territorial annexes that identify emergency communications capability shortfalls and potential
<br />resource requirements. Grant recipients are encouraged to leverage these planning resources as a
<br />source of input and reference for all emergency communications grant applications and investment
<br />justifications (IJ).
<br />In addition, FEMA formally recognizes several statewide emergency communications governance
<br />bodies (e.g., Statewide Interoperability Coordinator (SWIC), Statewide Interoperability Governance
<br />Board (SIGB), Statewide Interoperability Executive Committee (SIEC), FirstNet State Single Point of
<br />Contact (SPOC)), and strongly encourages grant recipients to closely coordinate with these entities
<br />when developing an emergency communications investment to ensure projects support the state or
<br />territory’s strategy to improve their communications capabilities with the goal of achieving fully
<br />operable, interoperable, and resilient communications. In addition, recipients should work with
<br />public and private entities, and across jurisdictions and disciplines, to demonstrate engagement with
<br />the Whole Community in accordance with Presidential Policy Directive-8 (PPD-8).
<br />For regional, cross-border initiatives, FEMA requires recipients to coordinate projects with national
<br />level emergency communications coordination bodies, such as the National Council of Statewide
<br />Interoperability Coordinators (NCSWIC) and the Regional Emergency Communications Coordination
<br />Working Groups (RECCWG). The NCSWIC promotes and coordinates state-level activities designed to
<br />ensure the highest level of public safety communications across the nation. RECCWGs are
<br />congressionally mandated planning and coordination bodies located in each FEMA Region and
<br />provide a collaborative forum to assess and address the survivability, sustainability, operability, and
<br />interoperability of emergency communications systems at all levels of government. Grant-funded
<br />investments that are coordinated with these bodies will help ensure that federally funded emergency
<br />communications investments are interoperable and support national policies.
<br />All entities using preparedness grant funding to support emergency communications investments are
<br />required to comply with the SAFECOM Guidance. The SAFECOM Guidance provides current
<br />information on emergency communications policies, eligible costs, best practices, and technical
<br />standards for SLTT recipients investing federal funds in emergency communications projects. It is
<br />also designed to promote and align with the NECP. Compliance with the SAFECOM Guidance helps
<br />ensure that federally funded investments are compatible, interoperable, resilient, and support
<br />national goals and objectives for improving emergency communications. Applicants should use the
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