Lawmakers keep eye on communications grant program
Funding would help state and local agencies address communications interoperability, a problem that has not been solved since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
House lawmakers on Friday pressed Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to establish guidelines for a new $1 billion grant program to help emergency responders buy communications equipment than can work across jurisdictions.
The Homeland Security and Commerce departments are supposed to co-administer the program, which is to be funded with proceeds from selling radio spectrum this year. But House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and ranking Republican Peter King of New York said the departments have been unable to agree on management of the program.
"I can't impress upon you my and the ranking member's concern about the whole issue," Thompson told Chertoff during a hearing.
By law, $1 billion is supposed to be available by this September. The funding would help state and local agencies address the need for communications interoperability, a problem that has not been solved in the more than five years since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Lawmakers have no idea, however, how the program will work or how state and local agencies should apply for funds.
Chertoff said he expects Homeland Security and Commerce to reach an agreement within 10 days, and if they do not, he will personally call Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.
Regardless, King and Thompson said they will send Chertoff a letter on Friday asking him to explain the delay in reaching an agreement.
King and Thompson also blasted the fiscal 2008 Homeland Security budget request for cutting about $1.2 billion from existing grant programs to state and local public-safety agencies.
Chertoff countered that the new $1 billion grant program would offset those cuts.
"The bottom line is this: We're going to put $3.2 billion in the hands of first responders and communities in fiscal year '08, which is roughly the same as it was this past year," Chertoff told reporters after the hearing. "I don't tend to get hung up on individual programs and categories. ... I look at what is the ultimate money that's going out to communities to do homeland security."
King and Thompson are not buying Chertoff's argument. King helped draft the legislation that created the $1 billion fund and said it was never intended to offset cuts to other grant programs. Their letter to Chertoff will ask him to explain his position, aides said.
King indicated during the hearing that the department's budget might have to be increased overall. "When you're at war, you decide how much money you need and you work your way back from that," he said. "Certainly, I intend to be discussing this with the chairman as we go forward and also members on my side."
Chertoff said the budget is sufficient, adding that about $5 billion in grants to state and local agencies still has not been spent. "We are making huge investments," he said. "There's a lot of money in the pipeline. Like everybody else in the world, we all ultimately have to live within a budget and within our resources, so we all make tough decisions."