The White House has struggled for quite a while when it comes to dispersing federal funds to municipalities for counter-terrorism. In 2006, for example, the Bush administration, slashed money for Washington, D.C., and New York City using a bizarre grant process that no one could explain. At the same time, the administration released a risk scorecard for NYC concluded that the home of the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, and Brooklyn Bridge has “zero” national monuments or icons.
Yesterday, however, the Bush gang decided the entire grant process is no longer worth the investment, and it would now slash counter-terrorism funds even more.
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 Homeland Security Department has given $23 billion to states and local communities to fight terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks, but 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 calls outright elimination of 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.
I’m trying to imagine the Republican response if a Democratic presidential candidate proposed a budget policy similar to Bush’s plan. I have a strong hunch we’d hear words like “weak,” “traitor,” and “treason” thrown around quite a bit.
“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.”‘
Indeed, the AP noted that Bush’s budget conflict’s with Bush’s own policies.
The proposal to drastically cut 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 the administration deems critical to preventing another 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 will ultimately 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.
Republicans aren’t particularly pleased with the proposal. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said, “This would be a very grave mistake, and I will do all I can to stop it.”
How bad is it? Even Joe Lieberman thinks Bush is off-track.
In a joint statement, Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairman and ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, said they “urge the administration to reconsider this wrong-headed strategy.”
Stay tuned.