Chertoff Pressed for Homeland Security Funds
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Mayor Bloomberg and Senators Schumer and Clinton asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff yesterday to push for a “risk-based” approach to security funding that would give New York City a bigger piece of the pie.
Mr. Chertoff responded, “We do believe in having a risk-based approach to everything we do at the department of Homeland Security.” He provided no details about steps he would take to carry out the policy.
Mr. Chertoff and the New York elected leaders spoke after meeting privately at Grand Central Terminal, where they were briefed about security measures there.
Mr. Bloomberg thanked Mr. Chertoff for his role in securing $42 million in federal funding to help protect transit systems in the New York metropolitan region but said he was concerned about a bill proposed by Senator Collins, a Maine Republican who is chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Senator Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, which would give all states a minimum share of the funds.
“Homeland security funding should be based in risk and risk alone,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “We simply can’t allow something as vital as the distribution of homeland security funds to be treated as political pork.”
Senators Clinton and Schumer, both New York Democrats, pressed Mr. Chertoff to advocate for more funding for homeland security in general and more for New York in particular.
“Wyoming does better than we do,” Mr. Schumer said. “Most other states do better than we do, even though we are the epicenter of terrorism.”
Mrs. Clinton said in a letter to Mr. Chertoff that she released later yesterday, “I … hope that you will use all resources and authority available to you to implement threat and risk-based funding in all the homeland security programs intended for our local governments and states.”
She said that while former Homeland Security Secretary Thomas Ridge had acknowledged the need for risk based funding, “There was little evidence of any significant effort on the part of the administration to push for the use of a better funding formula.”
