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DHS redirects anti-terrorism funding to large cities

Emergency Management Alert, December 28, 2004

The Department of Homeland Security has shifted its largest share of $3.5 billion in anti-terrorism grants to the nation's largest cities, the New York Times reported last week.

By shifting the funding to large cities like New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C., states will be able to purchase more necessary equipment and training to defend the nation against a possible attack.

New York City will receive $208 billion in 2005 compared to $47 million last year. The funds will allow the city to buy more biological and chemical detectors, increase training for its police and firefighters, and spend more money on intelligence.

Proponents of the shift say they hope it is only a first step in revamping domestic security grants, the Times reported. However, other cities such as Orlando, Memphis, and New Haven reportedly protested this change since their funding will decrease.

"We are at the crossroads of America, for cars, for trains, for river traffic," Claude Talford, director of emergency management services in the Memphis area, which received a $10 million grant this year but is not slated to get any direct grants in 2005, told the Times. "We are a prime location, a prime target, any way you look at it."

Lobbying efforts are under way to try to reinstate financing to these communities. But Homeland Security officials said the grant allocations were final.

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