Houston City Council was scheduled to vote Wednesday, Nov. 4, on an ordinance letting the Mayor's Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security apply for part of FEMA's FY2027 Counter-UAS Grant Program. The city has been through this before. The terms this time are tighter. The first round of federal counter-drone money went to the 11 states hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The FY2027 round puts $250 million on the table for all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five territories, which means each state's share is much smaller.
For Texas the drop is steep. FEMA's allocation table gives the state $10,508,140. In the World Cup round, Texas received $30,276,431, according to DroneXL. That is about a third of the earlier amount, and it has to cover every Texas jurisdiction that opts in, not just the World Cup host cities.
How the Money Moves
KPRC 2 reported that the State of Texas does the heavy lifting on the application, but the city has to raise its hand first. DroneXL reported that the governor's Public Safety Office collects the local applications. The council ordinance is Houston's first step toward a share of the money, and, according to DroneXL, the Council agenda item lists Houston's share as unknown.
The federal deadline is close. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (Funding Opportunity DHS-27-GPD-161-00-99, Assistance Listing 97.161) sets the application deadline at 5 p.m. ET on Nov. 16, 2026. Any local request has to clear the state's internal process before then.
The NOFO expects awards to run from $760,000 to $25 million. States must pass at least 97% of their funds through to subrecipients. The document also allows states to keep up to 20% for state-level equipment. Texas's $10.5 million is meant to be divided among local agencies that apply through the governor's office, and states also decide who gets mitigation money.
The Olympic Tilt
The FY2027 round is open to every state, but its priorities are not spread evenly. The NOFO sets a target that 80% of mitigation systems bought with the money protect the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic torch relay, National Special Security Events (NSSEs), or events rated under the Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) system.
That target matters for a city like Houston. The 80% goal applies to mitigation systems, meaning the gear that can actually stop or take control of a drone, so detection purchases are not bound by it. The NOFO's scoring also favors proposals that support the Olympics, NSSEs or SEAR 1 or 2 events, though projects that do not can still be eligible. A Texas jurisdiction that wants mitigation gear has good reason to show how it fits those categories.
Legal authority is also restricted. Under the Safer Skies Act rules described by DroneXL, only an accredited law enforcement or correctional agency may use mitigation gear, through officers certified at the FBI's National Counter-UAS Training Center. Buying the equipment does not give a local agency the right to use it.
The Data Condition
The NOFO's data terms may be the most consequential part of the program. Recipients must ensure grant-funded detection systems permit secure DHS access to relevant detection data, including detection events, tracks and Remote ID information. Federal grant money brings federal access to what the sensors collect.
For DHS, the requirement builds a wider picture of low-altitude drone activity across many jurisdictions, using sensors that local governments buy and run. For local agencies, it means the data does not stay local. That ties into a point KPRC 2 raised: Houston officials say they are working on guardrails for how the technology will be used. Those guardrails will have to work alongside a grant condition that sends detection data to a federal agency.
Houston's Track Record
Houston has already used this pipeline. According to DroneXL, City Council approved an application for the 2026 round on Feb. 18. In May it approved reimbursing the Harris County Sheriff up to $1,254,000, and it re-approved that arrangement on Oct. 7. The new ordinance would put the city in line for the next round.
The World Cup also showed the need. DroneXL reported that the Texas Department of Public Safety seized eight drones around Houston venues in the tournament's first week. That is a small number, but it shows that unauthorized drones near large crowds already happen in Houston.
Larry Satterwhite, director of the Mayor's Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security, described the goal to KPRC 2 as seeing more and covering more ground at big events. DroneXL noted that Houston's filing also names mitigation, and that much of the capability would land with the Houston Police Department.
Why It Matters
The first round went to the 11 World Cup states. The FY2027 round spreads the same $250 million across 56 states and territories, and that changes the math for every state. Texas's share falling from $30.3 million to $10.5 million while eligibility opens to the whole state is the clearest example. Houston will share the pot with every other Texas jurisdiction that applies through the governor's office. The NOFO's expected award range runs from $760,000 to $25 million.
The conditions show what Washington wants from the money. The 80% mitigation target ties the most capable hardware to the 2028 Games and national-level security events. The FBI training-center certification requirement limits who may use mitigation gear. The DHS data-access condition turns locally owned sensors into inputs for a federal view of the airspace. Cities that take the grant are not only buying equipment. They are agreeing to how it is deployed, who can operate it and who sees the data.
For Houston, the immediate questions are whether the state's application includes the city and how much of the $10.5 million reaches it. The broader question is whether a $250 million national program spread this thin can meet the drone problem the World Cup exposed, or whether most of the money ends up concentrated around the events the NOFO already favors.
