The Federal Emergency Management Agency has paid out $41 million for presidential protection in grants to state and local law enforcement agencies, according to new data released to Congress on Wednesday.
FEMA announced it had awarded funding to law enforcement agencies in Florida, New York and New Jersey to pay for presidential protection of “non-governmental” residences under a grant program approved through last year’s Homeland Security funding bill.
The bulk of the money, $36 million, went to the New York City Police Department, and FEMA awarded $3.3 million to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.
The figures were sent to Congress on Wednesday and posted on FEMA’s website. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment but has not immediately responded.
President Donald Trump has properties in all three states, and he has made frequent trips to Mar-a-Lago in Florida and Bedminster, New Jersey. His wife, first lady Melania Trump, also spent the first part of 2017 living in New York at Trump Tower.
A FEMA official said that every state and local law enforcement agency that applied for funding was awarded the full amount requested. The grants reimbursed costs that were incurred between January 21 and September 30, the official said.
The FEMA website describes the grants as funding used to reimburse state and local law enforcement for “extraordinary law enforcement personnel costs incurred while protecting any nongovernmental residence of the President that is designated or identified to be secured by the United States Secret Service (USSS).”
FEMA says the grants were intended to “reimburse state and local law enforcement agencies for operational overtime costs associated with protecting the President’s nongovernmental residences.”
The grants stemmed from a new program approved in the fiscal 2017 Homeland Security appropriations bill.
The program also awarded $579,000 to Somerset County, New Jersey; $282,000 to the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety; $71,000 to Palm Beach, Florida; $63,000 to the West Palm Beach, Florida, police department; $55,000 to the Broward County, Florida, sheriff’s office; $54,000 to Bedminster, New Jersey; and $31,000 to Morristown, New Jersey.
