December 1, 2007
Anti-terror funding set for big cuts nationwide
By Eileen Sullivan and Devlin Barrett
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration intends to slash counterterrorism funding for police, firefighters and rescue departments across the country by more than half next year, according to budget documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The Department of Homeland Security has given $23 billion to states and local communities to fight terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but one document says the administration is not convinced that the money has been well spent and thinks the nation's highest-risk cities have largely satisfied their security needs.
The department wanted to provide $3.2 billion to help states and cities protect against terrorist attacks in 2009, but the White House said it would ask Congress for less than half – $1.4 billion, according to a Nov. 26 document. The plan seeks to eliminate programs for port security, transit security and local emergency management operations in the next budget year. This is President Bush's last budget, and the new administration would have to live with the funding decisions between Jan. 20 and Sept. 30, 2009.
Homeland Security and the White House Office of Management and Budget, which is in charge of the administration's spending plans, would not provide details about the funding cuts because nothing has been finalized.
The proposal to slash Homeland Security grants is at odds with some of the administration's own policies. For example, the White House recently promised continued funding for state and regional intelligence “fusion centers” – information-sharing centers that the administration deems critical to preventing a new terrorist attack. Cutting the grants would limit money available for the centers.
The White House's plan to eliminate the port, transit and other grants, which are popular with state and local officials, would not go into effect until Sept. 30, 2008. Congress is unlikely to support the cuts and ultimately will decide the fate of the programs and the funding levels when it hashes out the department's 2009 budget next year. The White House routinely seeks to cut the budget requests of federal departments, but the cuts proposed for 2009 Homeland Security grants are far deeper than the norm. Congress has yet to approve the department's 2008 plan.
“This budget proposal is dead on arrival,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. “This administration runs around the country scaring people and then when it comes to putting their money where their mouth is, they say, 'Sorry, the bank is closed.' ”
California receives a large share of the counterterrorism money each year, and could lose more than $200 million under the White House plan.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was disappointed over the news that the White House was considering funding cuts, Jay Alan, spokesman for the state Homeland Security office, said yesterday.
“We're going to fight for our money. We feel we've used it very well,” Alan said.
Boxer was particularly incensed about the proposal to end money for port security – a big concern on the West Coast.
“California's ports carry over 47 percent of all goods imported into the United States,” she said. “A terrorist attack at any of California's ports could shut down our nation's port system and result in a mind-boggling loss for our nation's economy.”
In San Diego, officials at the San Diego Unified Port District said they could not determine what effect the proposed cuts would have.
Since 2001, the port has received more than $16.7 million in Homeland Security grants that have been used to implement more than 25 security measures approved by the Port Commission.
The security measures include improved lighting and security at the port's cruise-ship terminal and its two maritime cargo terminals. The money also helped pay for creation of a Joint Harbor Operations Center that brings together communications personnel from the Port District, the Navy and the Coast Guard to improve emergency communications on San Diego Bay.
San Diego officials said the potential cuts would hamper their security programs.
Mayor Jerry Sanders traveled to Washington, D.C., four times to lobby Homeland Security officials to make sure grants to the city were not cut off. Federal officials said in January 2006 that San Diego was in danger of being removed from a list of 35 U.S. cities at highest risk for terrorist attack, and thereafter having its funding cut.
But after lobbying efforts by Sanders and the region's congressional delegation, the San Diego area was awarded $16 million for this fiscal year, about twice what it received last year.
Grants from the Urban Areas Security Initiative Program have been used to upgrade communication equipment and emergency training. Job Nelson, the city's director of intergovernmental relations, said some of the money was used on equipment that allowed city firefighters to better communicate with fire and emergency personnel from other jurisdictions during the recent wildfires.
“If that's the money they're talking about (eliminating), then that would have a big impact,” Nelson said. “But in Washington, it's sometimes hard to know how much is posturing and how much is real.”
Meanwhile, opposition to deep cuts also emerged from New York, another state that would be hard hit.
“To zero out essential Homeland Security programs which have more to do with protecting Americans and fighting the war on terror than much of the money spent in Iraq shows how warped and out of touch this administration's priorities are,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
The proposal “goes totally in the wrong direction,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. “This would be a very grave mistake, and I will do all I can to stop it.”
In 2005, the administration cut by 40 percent the counterterrorism funding to New York and Washington, D.C., the two cities hit hardest in the Sept. 11 attacks. New York lawmakers were furious, and the Homeland Security official in charge of the grants program eventually resigned.
Since then, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has promised to apply more common sense and less “bean-counting” in grant decisions.
The White House plan calls for massive cuts in areas where Homeland Security officials had sought increases. The department requested $900 million for grants to U.S. cities at greatest risk of attack, but the White House wants to provide only $400 million for that program, to be divided among no more than 45 urban areas. In 2007, Congress gave New York City $134 million – about one-third of the total amount the White House would give to the highest risk areas in the country in 2009.
While popular in states and among lawmakers who take credit for getting counterterrorism dollars to their districts, some DHS grants have been criticized as wasteful or excessive.
Staff writers Ronald W. Powell and Bill Ainsworth contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.