The U.S. Homeland Security Department has awarded nearly $400 million to help cities protect ports, rail lines, bus routes, buildings, and other potential terrorist targets, reports USA Today. New York City got the biggest chunk of the cash. More than three months after the department caused an uproar by cutting funds by 40 percent in another grant program to New York City and Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s department is reworking the way it distributes grants. “You’re never going to make everybody happy,” he said. “There’s never enough money.”
Port security accounted for $168 million of the new money for 51 cities. The New York-New Jersey port complex got $25.7 million, more than twice as much as Los Angeles-Long Beach, which came in second at $12 million. Funding for Memphis and Tampa was cut. Chertoff said the department is not heeding the political competition for billions of dollars in federal anti-terrorism dollars. He said the port-security grant to New York and New Jersey was not an effort to make amends for last summer’s cuts.
Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-09-25-homeland-cities_x.htm