Washington, DC  -  Calhoun County’s Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) should receive a record $55 million for fiscal year 2004, a 22% increase over last year’s appropriation and $10 million more than 2003, Congressman Mike Rogers announced today following recent debate on the first-ever conference report on Homeland Security appropriations.

H.R. 2555, the Conference Report for the Department of Homeland Security, passed the House Wednesday by a vote of 417-8. The bill provides a first-ever appropriation for the new federal agency which oversees the operations of the CDP. An identical bill should soon be under consideration in the Senate, and if approved, will be sent to President Bush for his signature.

“These funds demonstrate the growing support in Congress for the Center for Domestic Preparedness,” Rogers said. “In times of tight budgets, this is a very positive development and a strong endorsement for the facility’s mission.”

Funding for the CDP has increased every year since its inception, growing steadily from an initial $2 million appropriation in 1998 to its current level of $55 million. Current plans call for expanding the facility’s training capability to 50,000 law enforcement officers per year. In 2003 CDP personnel trained over 10,000 law enforcement officers at the McClellan facility and 27,000 nationwide using its mobile training units. A total of 142,000 trainees have been certified at the facility since its opening in 1998.