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Chertoff on NYC's Homeland Security Funding: Oops!
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 29, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 29, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Remember how this summer, the Department of Homeland Security reduced the amount of anti-terror funding NYC would get? Sure, NYC was still getting most of the funding, but funds were being increased in less risky areas with, well, influential politicians. And then the press had a field day with how Homeland Security didn't think there were any national monuments or major buildings at risk? And then Homeland Security claimed that NY State and NYC didn't file their request properly?
Well, now Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has come out and tacitly stated - though not outright admitting - that the DHS was wrong. The Post reports that at a grand-writing conference, Chertoff offered a mea culpa:
"We've come to the conclusion that perhaps there was a little too much bean counting and a little less standing back and applying common sense to look at the total picture," Chertoff told a grant-writing conference.
"And I've heard the complaints about it, looking like we're playing kind of a pop-quiz type of game with local communities," he said.
"They have to try to guess what we're looking for - and if they guess wrong, they don't get the money that they think they're entitled to, and that they may be entitled to."
The DHS was quick to say that Chertoff isn't admitting the funding allocation was a mistake, but that "He's pretty much just saying that this year we will apply some common sense [and] look at the risk in the city." Seriously, this is the guy running Homeland Security? Isn't common sense supposed to be used, oh, all the time when it comes to anti-terror measures? Ah, what a way for us to have faith in our government.
New York area politicians are pleased with Chertoff's acknowledgment, even though it's a little too late: Congressman Anthony Weiner said, "It's good that DHS now admits flaws, but it would have been even better if they realized this before New York City's funding got slashed."
Chertoff wrote a NY Times op-ed last June to try to explain the funding situation. Remember, he's the same man who said that a terrorist attack on a subway is less catastrophic than a terrorist attack on an airplane, because it's not like subways are connected to large stations or terminals or anything.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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