Senate committee to address homeland funding issue

Senators are expected to offer less than 10 amendments when the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee marks up its "first-responder" legislation Wednesday, according to a committee aide.

But several of them will continue the fight over who should get more of the funding. The committee is scheduled to mark up the bill proposed by Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and ranking member Joseph Lieberman. D-Conn.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., could offer an amendment to limit grant-funding for regional areas, according to a Bush administration official familiar with the legislation.

The cities of Richmond, Va., New Haven, Conn., and St. Paul, Minn., received funding under the urban area security initiative in 2004, but have fallen off the list of top 50 cities this year.

Warner may get support from 15 senators on the committee who represent small, largely rural states, including GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic Sen. Mark Dayton of Minnesota. But Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., also plans to offer an amendment to make the grant-funding allocations strictly based on terrorist threats.

The Collins-Lieberman bill's formula and structure for allocating funding is significantly different from the bill House Homeland Security Chairman Chris Cox unveiled Tuesday, one he plans to mark up next week in his committee.

"We're very well situated to enact one of the key recommendations of the 9/11 Commission," Cox said before unveiling his measure. "The reason why this is taking an act of Congress is because Congress created the problem."

Cox was referring to the 0.75 minimum guarantee of all first-responder funding mandated in the USA PATRIOT Act. Cox also said he plans to mark up three bills, including a Homeland Security Department authorization measure, before House debate begins on the fiscal 2006 Homeland Security appropriations bill.

Cox said besides the first responder bill markup next week, he plans to approve a cybersecurity bill as well. Once those bills are approved, Cox said his committee will start "in earnest" work on the authorization measure. Collins has said she does not plan to draft an authorization measure this year.

Meanwhile, the Homeland Security Department on Tuesday announced more than $135 million in transit security grants. The grants included $108 million for rail transit -- $6.4 million of which went to Amtrak, $22.4 million for intra-city bus systems and $5 million for ferry systems.

The department said Amtrak would use the funding to enhance security for its intercity passenger rail operations in the Northeastern corridor and its hub in Chicago. The money is specifically allocated for preventing and detecting explosive devices, chemical, biological and radiological agents.

By comparison, the department awarded $50 million in 2004 and $65 million in 2003 for transit systems. The Bush administration had been criticized for not providing adequate funding since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to protect the nation's transit systems.