In the news

Homeland Security Appropriations: Senate Clears Spending Bill

The Senate on Friday, September 30, cleared the fiscal 2006 Homeland Security appropriations bill, a measure that would boost border security spending but cut first-responder grants and radically change how they are distributed. The three top first-responder grant programs, which include police & firefighters, would drop by 28.1 percent, to $1.7 billion.

Nearly a third of the $30.8 billion in discretionary funding in the measure is for two border security agencies – Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They would get increases of 10.1% and 10.5% over fiscal 2005, respectively.

Accompanying that reduction in first-responder grants is a new formula for distributing them, which has been hailed as a revolutionary change. The independent Sept. 11 commission and other experts have recommended those funds be distributed exclusively based on risk of terror attack, rather than giving each state a minimum of 0.75% of available funds and sending the rest out based on population, as the funds are distributed now.

The fight over changing the formula has often pitted small-state lawmakers, who benefit from the current formula, against big-state lawmakers, who would theoretically benefit more under a risk-based formula. While the conference report preserves the current state minimum, the remainder of the fiscal 2006 funds can now be distributed based on risk.

 
[ previous article ]  [ return to top ]