Quote of the Week: Senator Clinton on NY Homeland Security Cuts

"Secretary Chertoff has a lot of explaining and remedying to do. We need answers as to how a funding program based on risk has resulted in the current deep cuts to New York, a state that has tragically been more affected by terrorism than any other and that is still the greatest target of terrorist attacks.

We need answers as to why the Department of Homeland Security concluded that New York has only four places of national financial significance and no national monuments and icons. Most importantly, we need this astonishing and ill-considered formula to be changed immediately."

--- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) at a press conference on June 3, 2006, in response to the Department of Homeland Security's announcement of risk-based anti-terrorism grants for 2006.

Per the New York Times on May 31, 2006, "After vowing to steer a greater share of antiterrorism money to the highest-risk communities, Department of Homeland Security officials on Wednesday announced 2006 grants that slashed money for New York and Washington 40 percent, while other cities including Omaha and Louisville, Ky., got a surge of new dollars....

The net effect was that the grant to New York City, which was $207.6 million last year, will drop to $124.5 million this year....New York officials were given a one-page tally that explained, in part, how the region's risk-based standing was calculated. The document said the region had no 'national monuments or icons...."
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See Hillary Clinton Unplugged & Unleashed, which is an archive of US Liberals articles and blog posts on US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York