A recent article in the Baltimore Sun highlighted the growing resistance on the part of cities such as Baltimore, to the proposed change in how the federal government distributes $2 billion in federal emergency management funding. In 2011, the newspaper reported that the city of Baltimore “received $8 million in homeland security funding, including nearly $5 million in Urban Security Initiative grants used for regional preparedness projects.” This figure was down from the “roughly $17 million” that the city received three years ago.

The Obama administration has offered a proposal that “would require local governments to compete more for homeland security money rather than receiving it based on population and risk.” The proposal also calls for oversight of the funding to be moved from major cities and their surrounding counties to the state level.

The proposal to change the funding hierarchy originated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “who want Congress to approve the changes fall,” and “counter [the criticism] that the proposal will streamline a grant process that has become unwieldy. Consolidating the 16 separate grant programs into one will get the money out of the door more quickly and shouldn’t hamper regional planning.”

“The proposal,” the Baltimore Sun reports, “outlines in a “vision document” released by the department in February, has sparked an outcry from mayoral administrations in New York, Philadelphia, Tampa, FL, and elsewhere. Speaking before the House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, response and Communications last month, Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter (PDF) predicted that the competitive grants would “pit cities, counties and states against each other for funding.”