Mayors plead with Washington to uncork security funds
The nation's mayors had one message for Congress and the Bush administration Thursday: Show me the money.
Fifty mayors and 40 heads of local fire and police departments gathered on Capitol Hill for a "lobby day" to urge the expeditious disbursement of homeland security funding to localities. "We are here to speak with a strong and unified voice on behalf of the nation's cities and residents," Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, told reporters.
Despite Washington's pledge to provide the nation's "first responders" to emergencies with the resources necessary to combat terrorism and secure the homeland, cities have not been reimbursed for the costs associated with heightened security efforts, the mayors said.
"We want the federal government to be our partners" and "share" in security costs, Menino said. For more than a year, Menino said local leaders have shouldered the costs by hiring and training more emergency workers and purchasing equipment as congressional promises for direct funding have remained fallow.
In meetings with White House Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez and Senate leaders, the mayors appealed for immediate and direct funding for such things as new equipment to make communications among rescue workers interoperable.
Despite some opposition from the Bush administration and the nation's governors, the mayors urged lawmakers to pass a bill, S. 1737, that would authorize money for cities. "Help is not on the way for our cities," said Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who authored the bill and attended part of the mayors' lobby day. "We've gotten very little money out of Washington."
She called the current, tiered system of distributing funds through state governments "counter-productive" and promoted direct funding as the only way to provide relief to localities facing major budget shortfalls.
The Bush administration proposed $3.5 billion in funding for homeland defense costs for first responders in fiscal 2003. Those funds are housed within an appropriations bill for the Commerce, Justice and State departments and within a separate budgeting bill for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development. Both of those measures have stalled because of a broader fight over appropriations.
Funds for state and local bioterrorism efforts have been disbursed, but nearly $2.5 billion approved under an emergency spending measure signed over the summer has not reached its intended recipients. Clinton blamed the Bush administration for refusing to designate the money as "emergency," thereby effectively vetoing it.
Menino said Ridge indicated in his meeting with the mayors that he favors flexibility in distribution of homeland security funds. "It shows some give" on the part of Ridge and the Bush administration, Menino said.
Mayors also met with various House and Senate lawmakers and urged action on legislation to dismantle barriers to intelligence sharing among federal and local agencies.