Senate panel hears call for revised security grant formula

Former members of the panel that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks joined New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday in seeking a new formula for homeland security grants and streamlined oversight of the Homeland Security Department and intelligence agencies.

Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat who co-chaired the 9/11 Commission, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that only half of the commission's recommendations have been enacted.

Acting committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., said his committee plans to introduce a bill by the end of the month to implement the unfulfilled recommendations. Lieberman said one of his priorities is to change the grant formula, as the 9/11 Commission recommended that grants be distributed based solely on risk assessments.

Under current law, the Homeland Security Department must give all states at least 0.75 percent of the covered grants. A bill passed Tuesday by the House would change the law, requiring that all states get at least 0.25 percent of those grants, or 0.45 percent if they meet certain high-risk criteria. That would free more money to be distributed based on terrorism risk.

But the House and Senate previously passed different bills to change the funding formula and were unable to reach a conference agreement. "I hope that this will be the year when the House and Senate can finally reach agreement on a permanent, comprehensive solution to homeland security grants," Lieberman said in his opening statement.

Bloomberg said the Bush administration and Congress are to blame for politicizing homeland security funding. "From day one, I have urged that homeland security funding be distributed based on risk alone," he said. "For the sake of New York City -- and the security of our nation -- I hope you will stop writing politically derived formulas into homeland security bills."

He said the government needs to prioritize funding for actual terrorist targets. "I think it's very simple," he said. "Agricultural money should go to places where they grow things, and homeland security money should go to where there are vulnerabilities that are targets."

Lieberman said he and acting committee ranking Republican Susan Collins of Maine also want to "take a fresh look" at further reform of congressional oversight of the department and nation's intelligence agencies.

The House also will vote on a bill Tuesday to reform congressional oversight of intelligence. But House Democrats do not plan further changes to oversight of Homeland Security.

"I do not think that you in the Congress have reached the point where you are sufficiently reformed to provide effective oversight," Hamilton said.

He also said one of the biggest problems is that congressional authorizers do not have budget power, which leaves them with "relatively little input into policy." He added, "If you're going to have executive oversight, you've got to link it to budget power."