Dems promise fast start on changing security grant distribution
Effort would help Democrats meet campaign promises to enact 9/11 Commission recommendations.
House Democrats plan to introduce legislation at the start of the new Congress to overhaul how billions of dollars in homeland security grants are distributed, but say they will still provide every state with a minimum amount of funding.
Incoming House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., is discussing legislation to change the funding formula for the grants with Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., aides said. The legislation would require allocating more money to areas with higher risks.
"This will definitely be addressed in the first 100 hours," a Pelosi aide said. It was not clear, however, whether lawmakers would resurrect previous bills to overhaul the funding formula or write new legislation. The aide said the effort is part of the Democrats' intention to make good on a campaign pledge to implement recommendations from the 9/11 Commission.
The commission recommended in 2004 that the grants should be based strictly on an assessment of risks and vulnerabilities. Under current law, each state is guaranteed at least 0.75 percent of funds allocated under the state homeland security grant program and the law-enforcement terrorism prevention program.
Nobody, however, is talking about eliminating a guaranteed minimum. "Every state has some risk," the Pelosi aide said. "Everyone will get something." The issue is what percentage of funding should be guaranteed. The House and Senate have deadlocked over competing bills for two years and have not been able to resolve their differences. But a new Congress might bring a renewed appetite to reach an agreement.
Thompson has already talked to incoming Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., about changing the grant formula, an aide said.
Lieberman said he still supports a minimum funding level. "While we should provide extra funding to places with higher population densities and obvious risk factors such as lengthy coastlines, petroleum reserves and nuclear power plants, we have to keep in mind that terrorists will find vulnerabilities wherever they exist," he said.
Outgoing House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., said he is also on board to change the funding formula. "This is not a partisan issue. I'll do whatever Bennie wants to do," he said. But he added that he wants to have a bill as close as possible to the House version.