Despite deadly terrorist bombings in London and Madrid, mass transit systems in the United States are scarcely more secure than they were before the Sept. 11 attacks and require at least 10 times the current federal funding to protect against future terrorism, transportation security specialists said yesterday. And if public buses, subways, and trains are to become any safer, the federal government needs to set its priorities and decide which agency will fund and oversee them, panelists asserted at a policy luncheon.
The Boston Globe reports that they blasted a Department of Homeland Security restructuring plan announced last month, saying it would do little to alleviate gaps in oversight, and criticized the transportation bill signed into law yesterday for failing to provide needed mass transit security funding. ”We are continuing to do homeland security on the cheap,” said panel moderator P.J. Crowley, director of National Defense and Homeland Security at the Center for American Progress. The discussion took place at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank in Washington that specializes in national security policy.
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