The Canaveral Port Authority has been awarded $908,015 in federal funding by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) FEMA Port Security Grant Program (PSGP).

The grant will be augmented by a 25 percent Port match for a $1.2 million project to improve Port Canaveral’s port-wide risk prevention, threat mitigation and security response service capabilities.
 
“In an ever-changing complex global environment, our mission to ensure the safety and securing of our Port and surrounding community is a top priority,” Port CEO and Director Captain John Murray stated. “This federal grant will help us invest in some new technologies to broaden our capabilities to protect our people and assets with an enhanced ability to detect and respond to threats.”

Port Canaveral was one of over 30 U.S. ports awarded FY 2020 federal funding from FEMA’s $100 million PSGP program, which provides grants to ports on a competitive basis each year. The program’s priority is to protect critical port infrastructure, enhance maritime domain awareness, improve port-wide maritime security risk management, and maintain or re-establish maritime security mitigation protocols that support Port recovery and resiliency capabilities.

The grant is made available by DHS and administered by FEMA to strengthen infrastructure and support ports’ efforts to achieve the National Preparedness Goal established by FEMA. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Port Security Grants have helped the nation’s seaports enhance measures to increase security and protect vital transportation hubs and maritime borders.

In September 2018, Port Canaveral was awarded $1.149 million in federal and state grants for upgrades to its port security operations and cybersecurity detection and prevention systems.