House passes DHS spending bill as outcry continues over grants

The House approved a fiscal 2007 spending bill for the Homeland Security Department Tuesday evening, despite an outcry from some lawmakers that the department has seriously misjudged its grant allocations to urban areas.

The bill, approved by a 389-9 vote, provides $32 billion in discretionary funding for the department.

Shortly before the final vote, Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., introduced a motion on behalf of Democrats to recommit the spending bill with orders that appropriators add $750 million for state grants and urban area security grants so that no state or urban area would receive less funding than it had last year.

Although some Republicans have criticized the grant allocations, House leaders derailed Lowey's motion on a point of order raised by Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky.

Despite the partisan bickering, criticism has been growing in Congress that the department wrongly cut urban area security grants this year to several cities. With pressure mounting for a congressional response, Rogers told CongressDaily he is requesting detailed information from the department about the funding allocations. Subcommittee staff will meet with department officials Thursday, followed by a closed-door briefing for the full subcommittee on a date yet to be decided.

"We'll be talking to them about how they make their decisions [and] what formula they're using," Rogers said. "I want to see what their justifications are."

The department reduced by 40 percent urban security funds going to New York and Washington. New York state saw its urban area anti-terrorism funding cut by $93 million. Members of the New York delegation who serve on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, such as Republican Rep. John Sweeney, are continuing to express outrage.

Sweeney sent a letter Monday asking Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to explain the process the department used in making grant allocations. He noted that Canadian authorities arrested 17 suspected terrorists over the weekend outside of Toronto, which he said is a short drive from many of New York's border cities and towns, including ones in his district.

But some metropolitan areas saw their funding levels greatly increased, such as Jersey City and Newark in New Jersey and Los Angeles and Long Beach in California. Overall funding for urban area grants was reduced by $125 million compared to last year.

Rogers said he is not ready to judge whether the department was mistaken in its grant allocations. Other lawmakers, however, already have made up their minds.

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., introduced an amendment to the fiscal 2007 spending bill Tuesday that would have prevented the department from spending any money next year if its funding formula for urban area grants does not take into account several conditions, such as local government assets that serve the military, proximity to international borders, and the effects of an attack on critical infrastructure, including dams and levees.

"We all agree that a risk-based grant program is an effective use of our limited resources. However, policy is only as good as the information that goes into it," Matsui said.

Rogers raised a point of order against the amendment and it was not allowed to be considered.

Lawmakers also took aim at a five-year, $21.2 million contract that the department awarded to Shirlington Limousine and Transportation, Inc., which is under federal investigation for possibly providing prostitutes to public officials.

Lawmakers approved by voice vote an amendment sponsored by Reps. Tom Price, R-Ga., and John (Randy) Kuhl, R-N.Y., that would transfer $4.2 million from the department's management and operations account into grants for firefighters.

An aide to Price said the funding represents the amount of money the department plans to spend each year on the Shirlington contract. The amendment does not require that $4.2 million be taken specifically away from the contract, but that is the intent, the aide said.