Oh, it’s just gotten even more special. The White House is now blaming New York and Washington, D.C. for the huge cuts in the Homeland Security budget allocation for those cities. No matter that both cities remain the only American cities directly hit by foreign terrorists. No matter that both cities remain targets, as the financial and political capitals of the country. Nope, the White House cut funding by 40% because they didn’t dot their i’s and cross their t’s.
The federal agency distributing $711 million in antiterrorism money to cities around the nation found numerous flaws in New York City’s application and gave poor grades to many of its proposals.
Its criticism extended to some of the city’s most highly publicized counterterrorism measures.
In a report that outlines why it cut back New York City’s share of antiterrorism funds by roughly 40 percent, the Department of Homeland Security was so critical of some highly viewed local measures — like Operation Atlas, in which hundreds of extra police officers carry out counterterrorism duties around the city each day — that the Police Department and other city agencies must now seek further federal approval before drawing on the money they were given to pay for those programs.
Federal officials said yesterday that the city had not only done a poor job of articulating its needs in its application, but had also mishandled the application itself, failing to file it electronically as required, instead faxing its request to Washington.
9/11 changed everything, did it? But not so fast, say city officials. These criticisms are unfounded:
City and state officials insisted that they had made no mistakes. And a state official provided a written acknowledgment from the federal government saying that the city’s application for grant money had been “successfully submitted” and said that the city could “log in” any time to view the application.
. . .
Though the federal officials said the city did not file properly, the city said state officials filed its package, and a state official said its package of applications was filed electronically on March 2, the deadline.
What was that about faxing?
The whole procedure, really, was flawed. Rather than have experts in counterterrorism review the proposals, DHS used a “peer review” system that came to the conclusion that New York had no national monuments or icons.
Funny, I seem to recall that there’s a big statute out in the harbor. And a bridge that’s been sold many times. And a readily-identifiable theater district, and several skyscrapers of some reknown. *
Not surprisingly, it appears that politics and palm-greasing may have had something to do with things.
Politics:
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg questioned yesterday whether old-fashioned pork barrel politics was at play in doling out the money in an election year. He was one of several elected officials who moved on different tracks to uncover how the decisions were made, with an eye toward revising that process.
“We tried to do an analysis of some of the moneys and whether or not they were given out for political reasons, and in fact in many of the places where they got money — but arguably there’s no threat — there are close elections either at the Senate level or the House level,” the mayor said. “Now, whether that was their motive I have no idea.”
And palm-greasing:
The report, obtained yesterday, pointed out opposing views held by cities and the federal government over how antiterrorism money should be spent and, as an extension of those views, how terrorism should be fought.
City officials have used federal money to subsidize continuing costs, like paying overtime to officers. The federal government, on the other hand, wants the grants to pay for semipermanent safeguards that can increase security over the long term, like improvements in communications systems, better gas masks and increased training.
Note the difference. The City’s plan for antiterror operations puts money into police officers’ and firefighters’ pockets because of the day-to-day nature of the City programs. The White House would prefer the money be used to line the pockets of the manufacturers of gas masks and security equipment. Just look at what smaller communities do with the Homeland Security largesse:
Scarce antiterrorism money should be rigorously aimed at the places most at risk of attack, but the Bush administration and Congress have consistently refused to do so. While efforts to protect subway riders in New York City and federal workers in downtown Washington are badly underfinanced, places that would be bizarre targets have been swimming in federal funds. The Northwest Arctic Borough, an Alaskan area of 7,300 people, spent $233,000 a while back to buy decontamination tents, night vision goggles and other equipment.
Follow, as they say, the money.
The White House flogs 9/11 imagery into the ground for political gain and had the gall to use New York City as a backdrop for its 2004 political convention, but when it comes to actually putting its money where its mouth is, it’s time to blame New York and the District for their own troubles. I will close with a quote from NYC’s Fire Commissioner that about sums it up:
“We have a counterterrorism center that would deal with all of the potential scenarios that we have been studying that we have to be prepared for that could be dramatically affected by any cut in funding,” said Fire Commissioner Nicholas A. Scoppetta. “It’s as though Washington is not going to be convinced of the need until they have another terrible incident in a place like New York or Washington.”
And then they’ll be waving that bloody shirt around as well.
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* UPDATE —Lindsay has a list of the overlooked monuments, as well as some of the monuments in other cities that DHS deemed worthy of protection.