Federal officials will deal New Yorkers a second blow, cutting the city’s bioterror aid by up to 15 percent, reports the Newe York Daily News. The hit will come on money used to plan for everything from dirty bomb explosions to chemical attacks to the unleashing of deadly biological agents to flu pandemics. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) criticized the proposed budget slashing by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday shortly after the Homeland Security Department whacked New York’s anti-terror funding by 40 percent. “This second cut – from a different agency – shows that politics is at work,” Schumer says. The CDC cut will be $3.1 million – compared with the $83 million Homeland Security slashing.
CDC funds will be sliced for almost all areas of the country, but New York faces far deeper cuts than most. For example, while the per capita spending in the city will drop to $2.99 from $3.22, the spending in Wyoming will decline to $9.72 from $9.77, said Schumer. Rep. Anthony Weiner unveiled more “outrageous boondoggles” by Homeland Security yesterday, including these anti-terror fund expenditures: A $30,000 trailer for the October Mushroom Festival in Madisonville, Tx.; $160,000 for plasma TVs in Montgomery County, Md; $36,200 to block terrorists from raising money in Kentucky bingo halls. “What we have is a coast-to-coast smorgasbord of pork-barrel spending for homeland security,” said Weiner (D-Brooklyn, Queens).
Link: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/423815p-357615c.html