TEEX Center awarded $22 million through Homeland Security National Training Program

COLLEGE STATION – The Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) has announced that the agency will receive $22 million for its National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center (NERRTC), which provides specialized homeland security and preparedness training nationwide.

The passage of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act for federal fiscal year 2015 provides funding for the National Preparedness Directorate and the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC), of which TEEX/NERRTC is a founding member.

NERRTC administers the DHS/FEMA funding provided by the Homeland Security National Training Program Cooperative Agreement, which helps to ensure the nation is prepared to protect citizens and critical infrastructure in case of a major disaster. The funding is effective Oct. 1, 2015, through Sept. 30, 2017.

As a primary training partner of DHS/FEMA, the center plays a major role in establishing and maintaining a national culture of preparedness. NERRTC offers training in 11 core competencies: cybersecurity, crisis communications, executive and elected officials’ education, hazardous materials awareness and operations, health and medical services, incident management, infrastructure protection, search and rescue, threat and risk assessment, public works, and training gap analyses.

NERRTC provides local, state, tribal and territorial jurisdictions with high-quality, hands-on, scenario-driven leadership training, exercises and technical assistance, according to NERRTC Director Hank Lawson.

“Since it was established in 1998, NERRTC has enhanced the nation’s preparedness by training more than 500,000 emergency responders, senior officials, public works staff and medical personnel in over 10,000 jurisdictions,” Lawson added.

About NERRTC

NERRTC is one of the seven members of the NDPC operating under the DHS/FEMA’s National Preparedness Directorate’s National Training and Education Division. Other NDPC members include the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) in Anniston, AL; The National Center for Biomedical Research and Training (NCBRT), Academy of Counter-Terrorist Education at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, LA; The Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC) at New Mexico Tech (NMT) in Socorro, NM; National Nuclear Security Administration/CTOS-Center for Radiological/Nuclear Training (NNSA/CTOS) in Las Vegas, NV; The National Disaster Preparedness Training Center at The University of Hawaii (NDPTC) in Honolulu, HI; and the Security and Emergency Response Training Center (SERTC) at TTCI in Pueblo, CO.

Media contacts:

Brian Blake, TEEX Communications Director
[email protected]
PH: 979-458-6837, Cell: 979-324-8995

Will Welch
[email protected]
PH: 979-458-6979, Cell: 979-220-2840