New York and DC Lose Security Funds

The one thing that unites Republican and Democrat legislators in the State of New York is the loss of federal funds to the state. When the Heimatschutzministerium, as the Department of Homeland Security is more properly called, cut funds for New York and Washington, DC, in its Urban Areas Security Initiative, New York elected officials and what little representation Washington has, united to point out the sin. They merely identified the symptom, though, not the disease.

The New York City and Washington, DC, metropolitan areas were the targets of the Al Qaeda murders on September 11, 2001. The federal government in general and the Bush administration in particular were asleep at the wheel that autumn morning, and the real problem seems to be that the snooze alarm was hit, and the drowsing continues. The borders are as porous as ever, the National Guard heavily misdeployed in Mesopotamia rather than at home, and 95% of all cargo containers enter US ports without inspection.

The Urban Areas Security Initiative helps local government fund anti-terror programs. This year’s urban area grants total $711 million and are part of a larger $1.7 billion grant program that is dispersed to 46 different urban areas around the country. While New York City and DC’s grants were slashed by 40%, Louisville, Kentucky’s rose up 70%, Charlotte, North Carolina’s was up 64% and St. Louis, Missouri’s rose 31%. The headline for the story in the New York Post included the word “hicks.” Peter T. King (R-NY), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and supporter of former (so far) terrorists in the Irish Republican Army, told the Associated Press, “It’s a knife in the back to New York, and I’m going to do everything I can to make them very sorry they made this decision.”

What particularly hurt the Heimatschutzministerium was the determination by the department that New York had no (as in none, zero, fewer than 1) landmarks that terrorists would target. Leaving aside for the moment that two are gone, one might consider the UN, Empire State Building, Yankee and Shea stadia, JFK and LaGuardia airports, all the museums on Fifth Avenue and Central Park West as possible targets. Or one could merely point out that the feds have a man in jail for plotting to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge.

All right, then, Heimatschutzminister Michael Chertoff is an incompetent oik – the man who, along with ex-FEMA director Mike Brown, lost New Orleans last year. However, why is this year’s national grant smaller by $600 million than last year’s and more than $300 million less that the president requested? Congress passed a budget that allocated less. The firestorm over the executive is misplaced. The Congress has failed to protect the voters – surely that will be remembered this November.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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