Official: Hill foes may foil change to homeland grants
Bush administration calls for distributions based on risk and need.
A top Homeland Security Department official on Friday defended President Bush's proposal to change the funding formula for first responders but conceded the idea is unpopular with powerful lawmakers.
Matt Mayer, who oversees the distribution of grants to police officers, fire fighters and other emergency workers, said Bush's fiscal 2006 budget proposal reflected the administration's philosophy that federal grants to state and local communities must be allocated based on the risk and need of those areas to prepare for, prevent and respond to a terrorist attack.
The president requested last month that Congress lower the minimum percentage each state receives in funding from 0.75 percent to 0.25 percent, and asked lawmakers to shift more money to a high-risk urban area program rather than the general state and local initiatives.
"There's one little factor that may have an effect on that," Mayer said facetiously about lawmakers' authority, adding, "Obviously, there are a lot of members that are going to have a disagreement with that."
Mayer also said the department will outline in an announcement later this month its goals for the funding programs. He said distribution of fiscal 2006 funds will be based on seven priorities outlined in the announcement and fiscal 2007 funds will be based on 36 essential capabilities for first responders.
Mayer said it will take "hard work" to convince several powerful members of Congress, including Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, to accept the administration's proposal. "We'll have to do our best to defend [it]," he said. Rural state lawmakers fear that the new funding formula would significantly reduce grants to their states.
Collins has introduced legislation to reverse the administration's request to shift more funding to the urban area program and retain the .75 percent minimum funding for each state. And Thursday, Collins and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ranking member Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., successfully attached an amendment to the fiscal 2006 budget resolution to increase funding by more than $500 million for all the first-responder grants.
The amendment also would increase the amount for port security grants by $150 million, and community-policing and local anti-drug efforts by $140 million. On port security, Mayer said the president's proposal to consolidate port security grants with rail, transit and infrastructure grants also is a tough sell on Capitol Hill.