States, cities may lose some antiterror funds

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration intends to slash counterterrorism funding for police, firefighters and rescue departments across the country by more than half starting late next year, according to budget documents obtained by the Associated Press.

The Homeland Security Department has given $23 billion to states and local communities to fight terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks, but one document says the administration is not convinced that the money has been spent well and thinks the nation's highest-risk cities have largely satisfied their security needs.

The department wanted to provide $3.2 billion to help states and cities protect against terrorist attacks in the one-year period starting Sept. 30, 2008. But the White House said it would ask Congress for less than half - $1.4 billion, according to a Nov. 26 document.

The plan calls for outright elimination of programs for port security, transit security, and local emergency management operations in the next budget year.

Congress is unlikely to support such cuts and will ultimately decide the fate of the programs and the funding levels when it hashes out the department's 2009 budget next year. The White House routinely seeks to cut the budget requests of federal departments, but the cuts proposed for 2009 Homeland Security grants are far deeper than the norm.

Congress has yet to approve the department's 2008 plan. (In fiscal 2006, Philadelphia received $19.5 million and $18.7 million in 2007.)

The Homeland Security Department and the White House Office of Management and Budget, which is in charge of the administration's spending plans, would not provide details about the funding cuts because nothing has been made final. "It would be premature to speculate on any details that will or will not be a part of the next fiscal-year budget," OMB spokesman Sean Kevelighan said, because negotiations between the White House and the cabinet departments over the budget are not finished.

"There's been staunch support of our department, and you'll see it again this February" when Bush's 2009 budget emerges, Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke predicted.

The proposal to drastically cut Homeland Security grants is at odds with some of the administration's own policies. For example, the White House recently promised continued funding for state and regional intelligence "fusion centers" - information-sharing centers the administration deems critical to preventing another terrorist attack.