The House Appropriation Committee has passed the FY2015 Homeland Security funding bill. The bill fully funds FEMA's stated requirement for disaster relief at $7 billion. The bill provides a total of $2.5 billion for first responder grants, same as FY2014, which includes: $1.5 billion for State and Local grants. The bill provides $39.2 billion in discretionary funding for DHS. This is a decrease of $50 million below the fiscal year 2014 enacted level, but an increase of $887.8 million above the President’s request for these programs. The bill provides $125 million for the Office of Health Affairs, $2 million below FY2014. Included in the total is $84.6 million for the BioWatch program, as well as funding for biosurveillance pilots and chemical defense guidelines to promote early warning and situational awareness of high-risk incidents. Read more here.