City’s anti-terror funds slashed by 40%

Anti-terrorism funding for New York City has been slashed significantly for the 2006 fiscal year, prompting State and Queens politicians to protest the decision by the Department of Homeland Security.
Last year, New York City received $207.7 million in anti-terror funding. The new amount is $124.5 million, which represents a 40 percent decrease.
However, other cities that are generally considered to have less of a terror threat received an increase in funding of 60 percent, including Louisville, KY, Charlotte, NC and Omaha, NE.
“This is a shocking abuse of Homeland Security dollars,” said Representative Anthony Weiner, who is a member of the subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. “I am all for protecting the beer industry in Milwaukee, but not with the same funds used to protect Wall Street and the United Nations from terrorist attacks.”
Councilman Peter F. Vallone, Jr., who is the chair of the city’s Public Safety Committee, said that, “Washington already failed to protect New York City once and 3,000 of our citizens died. You think they would have learned from their past mistakes. Washington is telling New York to drop dead again, but this time literally.”
In order to combat this problem, Weiner reintroduced the Targeting Homeland Security Resources Effectively Against Terrorism (THREAT) Act. This piece of legislation would limit the number of cities to receive anti-terror funding to 15, so that the grants would be concentrated to cities that need them the most.
New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton released a statement saying that she plans on contacting Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to ask for an explanation of the funding cuts. She also hopes to convince the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to hold a hearing to address the issue.
Clinton, along with Representative Peter T. King, have also launched a postcard campaign. They are urging New Yorkers to send Chertoff postcards showing famous landmarks as a reminder of the visibility of the city. For more information on the program, go to https://clinton.senate.gov/postcards.
“These cuts demonstrate this administration’s continued failure to grasp the unique security threats that face New York,” Clinton said. “Our nation remains at risk and eliminating funding for an area most in need — like New York — demonstrates a pre-9/11 mentality that we should not tolerate.”
Congressmen Joseph Crowley, whose cousin was one of the firefighters who died on 9/11, and Vito Fossella introduced an amendment to the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) grants program, which would add $20 million in funding. It was passed by the House of Representatives and will go into effect for the 2007 fiscal year.
“This is the 21st century equivalent of President Bush telling New York City to ‘Drop Dead,’ ” Crowley said of the funding cuts.
On top of the cuts from Homeland Security, it was also announced that New York will lose 15 percent of its bioterrorism funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the 2005/2006 fiscal year, New York received $20.96 million in funding. That figure will drop to $17.87 million for the 2006/2007 fiscal year.
See Editorial on page 16.