Thursday, June 24, 2004
Long Island Newsday: It's a very simple concept: Federal money for police, firefighters and other first responders to a terrorist attack should go to the cities where the threat of attack is greatest. That's just common sense. Unfortunately, most of Congress doesn't see it that way. Lawmakers insist on treating first responder money like any other barrel of pork, to be spooned out in a way that ensures every place gets a helping, whether at much risk of attack or not.
That's the politically expedient thing to do. Voters like it when their member of Congress brings money home. But as Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said plaintively last week about money for first responders, "It's not a fight for dollars, it's a fight for survival." That's what it should be, anyway.
Common sense
The latest defeat for King's brand of common sense came Friday. The House rejected an amendment to the 2005 Homeland Security Department appropriation that would have shifted $446 million to cities considered the most likely targets of future terrorist attacks. That would have pushed the total to $1.45 billion. The money would have been taken from another program for emergency workers that doles out cash based on a spread-the-wealth formula.
The amendment was defeated, but the battle isn't over. Supporters of rational funding say their next move is to try to change the funding formula itself. The Senate could also weigh in on the side of reason by increasing the $1.2 billion in its appropriation bill for cities at risk of attack. Then there's the eventual conference committee in which House and Senate bills will be reconciled. That's ample opportunity for Congress to do the right thing.
The White House should help, too. It supported the attempt in the House to increase to $1.45 billion the money for cities most at risk. In fact, that's the exact figure included in President George W. Bush's budget proposal. And Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has voiced support for the concept that dollars should follow the threat.
Bush should put his clout where his mouth is. He should urge recalcitrant Republicans to go along and lean hard on those who don't. In a battle between pork and security, security should win every time.