Mayoral Politics Color Fight for Security Funds

WASHINGTON – At a meeting of New York State’s congressional delegation today, Rep. Anthony Weiner plans to press his colleagues to back a list of demands for increases to federal homeland security funding for New York.The meeting comes as Mayor Bloomberg is in talks with congressional Republicans who are crafting a new deal for distributing federal funds in the wake of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that the money be better targeted at high-risk areas rather than spread across the country, in some cases as political pork.A delegation united behind a specific wish list could help Mr. Bloomberg pressure congressional leaders to divert money to the city that would otherwise go to the voters who keep them in office.There is also a political backdrop to the debate.Mr. Weiner, a Democrat of Queens who is considering a run for mayor next year, is making demands that the Republicans are unlikely to accept, according to people close to the negotiations, such as a guarantee that 8.5% of federal homeland security funds, or $235 million in 2005, be earmarked for New York.With New York’s mayoral elections a year away, Democrats have been build ing the case that Mr. Bloomberg has failed to defend the city’s interests when it comes to federal funding for education, public housing, and, now, homeland security. A failure by Mr. Bloomberg to bring home a big chunk of the funding could play into that campaign theme.A staunch critic of the mayor, Mr. Weiner says Mr. Bloomberg has been reluctant to stand up to his fellow Republicans and thus has weakened the ability of New York City’s heavily Democratic delegation to criticize federal funding decisions that affect the city. The scenario could be repeated as Congress debates a bill this week that would implement the 9/11 commission’s recommendations, he said.“We want him to be successful – but successful in delivering on a good deal. The thing that has everyone very anxious here is that we are going to wake one morning and find that Bloomberg has endorsed the [Republican] bill and we will lobby for improvements and be told ‘Your mayor has already signed on to it,'” Mr. Weiner told The New York Sun.Mr. Weiner said Mr. Bloomberg has been “all thumbs” at getting federal homeland security money for the city, which infamously amounts to far less per resident than in most states, including rural areas such as Wyoming that are unlikely to be targeted by terrorists. He said the city needs $261 million a year; it received $130 million in federal funding in 2003 and $97 million in 2004.Political observers say that ambitious demands for funding may also set up the mayor for a fall.“I suspect that Democrats will try to beef up the wish list, knowing in advance that the mayor will not be able to succeed in getting all the items on it so they can later criticize him for under delivering,” said the executive director of the political campaign management program at the Department of Politics at New York University, Costas Panagopoulos.Mr. Bloomberg is in talks with the chairman of the House Select Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Christopher Cox of California, who already backs New York’s key request that money be assigned on the basis of terrorist threat. However, his proposed legislation leaves unclear how many cities would qualify and whether lawmakers would pile on their home districts and once again dilute the money.Mr. Bloomberg is not yet ready to endorse the proposed legislation, according to his spokesman, Edward Skyler.“Although we are making progress, it is still not clear the city would get the funds its need and deserves under the current proposal,” he said.A spokesman for Mr. Cox, Ken Johnson, said Mr. Weiner’s demand that 8.5% of all funds go to New York is “political posturing.”“Under our legislation, if New York City has the most vulnerable sites in the country, as we believe, then New York City is going to get more money than anyone else,” said Mr. Johnson.The mayor has been an effective advocate for the city, said Craig Donner, a spokesman for the lone Republican in the city’s congressional delegation, Rep.Vito Fossella of Staten Island.“The mayor has been one of the lead advocates on developing a threat based formula. He has articulated the position well, and, along with the New York delegation,” is trying to change the formula, he said.Other Democrats have withheld their judgment on Mr. Bloomberg’s performance in this round and say they want him to succeed in improving the bill.“With provisions such as a guaranteed minimum for every state, the proposal before Congress is just leaner pork. That is unacceptable,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat of New York.Democrats are likely to blame Mr. Bloomberg if the deal does not improve, predicted a Democratic political consultant, Joseph Mercurio, who teaches campaign management at New York University.“The fact that he is a Republican and has been doing so much for them and getting so little back from them is going to be a major issue in the campaign. … There will be TV ads, speeches, and debates that will include how he failed the city among other things on homeland security money throughout his administration,” he said.Democrats will hardly be able to argue that they would have done any better, countered Mr. Panagopoulos.“I think so long as the mayor can make the alternative claim that he was able to deliver … more than say any Democrat in his position could have been able to deliver, then these claims are unlikely to hurt him,” he said.Mr. Cox’s proposal would guarantee 0.25% of federal homeland security funds to every state and 0.45% to states designated as “high risk,” according to people familiar with the negotiations. While the plan is for five or six states to get the label, Mr. Weiner said he is afraid that the category may be end up being without limits, watering down its impact as more and more cities are added to the list.It is also unclear how New York will fare if a proposed 25-member grant board is allowed to decide whether individual projects get funded.Some progress has been made. Mr. Cox has agreed to change a proposal that would have limited money to go toward only new improvements to the city’s capabilities, rather than maintaining those already in place, say people familiar with the talks. New York has already made many major improvements paid for out of its own budget.Also, Mr. Cox has agreed that federal money could be used to reimburse the city for some of the costs of overtime pay for first-responders working extra hours during national terror alerts.His wish list also includes reimbursement for the more than $100 million in annual costs of the 1,000 newly hired police officers for counterterrorism, or the reimbursement of some money already spent since September 11, 2001.“We are cemented in our position that grants should be based on risk and most other things are negotiable until the bill is signed into law,” said Mr. Johnson.Regardless of what Mr. Cox ultimately agrees to, the final decision will not be his. The bill, which has been attached to a broad anti-terrorism bill, must go through a series of committees and face a floor vote, plus an inevitable conference committee to align it with a Senate version.At each step along the way, powerful Republicans from lower-risk areas will have a chance to change the bill to ensure that their home districts’ share of the money is not diminished.It is uncertain whether the legislation will pass the Congress before the November elections.

Mayoral Politics Color Fight for Security Funds

Mayoral Politics Color Fight for Security Funds

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