As a DC resident, this makes me wonder when our Reichstag fire will be coming.
A top official at the Department of Homeland Security said the agency will not reconsider its decision to cut anti-terror grants for Washington and New York by 40 percent, despite criticism and pointed questioning yesterday by congressional representatives from those regions.
George W. Foresman, DHS undersecretary for preparedness, stood by the complicated formulas used by a secret panel of reviewers to divide $711 million in 2006 funds for urban areas across the country. The result was that Washington and New York, the two areas targeted on Sept. 11, 2001, will get less than last year, while Omaha, Charlotte, Louisville and other cities will receive more.
"I feel confident in the risk analysis process and the peer review process," Foresman said at a congressional hearing, calling his agency's risk analysis "incredible." "What we need to do is a better job in communicating with the communities."
But Foresman appeared to have a difficult time communicating with the congressional panel. Lawmakers from both parties lambasted DHS and called its decision-making process "mind-boggling," "a mystery" and "goofy" and said it doesn't appear to meet its stated goal -- distributing federal dollars to regions that face the greatest risk of attack.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061501345.html