Homeland security spending for fiscal 2005 would increase nearly 10 percent under President Bush’s budget proposal, affording him the chance to demonstrate a commitment to domestic security in an election year.
The White House proposal, which includes $40.2 billion for the Homeland Security Department, was praised for addressing an issue that many big-city leaders have complained about: the failure to target federal money to cities at highest risk of experiencing terrorist attacks.
Mayors and other officials have criticized homeland security spending allocations based on a formula that results in Wyoming getting nearly $40 per capita in grants versus New York’s $5.50 for each resident. The new approach would help major cities, including Chicago, get a larger share of the money.
“You will notice a strategic shift,” Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Monday. “We basically have a [new] algorithm that says, let’s look at the population, population density; let’s look at critical infrastructure and let’s examine the threat.”
Ridge added that the new approach would be more targeted.
In addition, the White House said it would increase funding for the Urban Area Security Initiative to $1.45 billion from $725 million. The program provides grants to high-risk cities.
“I am pleased that President Bush’s budget has nearly doubled the amount of homeland security funding for high-threat localities to $1.45 billion,” said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg . “Washington is listening to us, abandoning its population-based funding schemes and moving more money towards New York City where it is needed.”
But critics noted that the budget would reduce the amount of money to be spent on first responders, who include firefighters, police and paramedics.
According to congressional sources, the president’s proposed budget would by one estimate cut almost $2 billion from funds presently spent on first responders. Other estimates were closer to a $1.2 billion reduction.
“Why is the president proposing to cut a little less than $2 billion nationally for local first responders?” asked Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D.-N.Y.), a member of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security and a frequent administration critic on domestic security matters. “I thought this budget was going to increase homeland security funding, not take from those who protect us.”
The FBI, a major part of the homeland security appartus, would see its funding increase to $5.1 billion, about 11 percent more than the $4.6 billion it received this year.
At least $154 million of the new FBI funding is intended for direct support of counterterrorism operations, although millions more in new funding could provide indirect support, according to Justice Department records. The bureau is part of that department, not the Homeland Security Department.
The direct funding includes $46 million intended to boost counterterrorism investigations at FBI field offices, including adding 159 agents and 100 support personnel. The budget also promises $14.3 million in new funding for “program support” for counterterrorism operations at FBI headquarters in Washington, which includes funding for 26 new agents, 16 attorneys and 47 support workers.
The bureau would get an additional $35.5 million to help it move a portion of the domestic counterterrorism operation from its headquarters to a new office that would be shared with CIA personnel. And the proposal includes $29 million so the government can consolidate and make better use of its multiple “watch lists” of suspected terrorists at the Terrorist Screening Center. Those lists are used primarily to keep suspected terrorists out of the U.S.
Indirect support includes $13.4 million to launch the FBI’s office of intelligence, which would coordinate terrorism- and intelligence-related efforts, and $12.8 million to help the agency’s foreign language program.
