WHITE PLAINS, NY – Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-Westchester/Rockland) announced today she will offer an amendment next week to the Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act of 2007 to greatly enhance our ability to account for critical infrastructure by revamping the seriously flawed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Asset Database. Lowey was joined at the press conference by local officials and first responders who put their lives on the line everyday to protect sites and infrastructure in New York, the number one potential terrorist target area.
“New York is home to countless national icons that could be targets; yet DHS continues to provide inadequate security funding for our region,” stated Lowey. “We cannot expect risk-based funding to be effective if DHS’s system for evaluating vulnerable targets is so incredibly defective. DHS’s inventory of national assets and landmarks must prioritize infrastructure and historic sites that are most at risk. That is why I am offering an amendment next week to the DHS Authorization Act to make sure we inject some common sense into the risk evaluation process.”
This week the DHS Inspector General issued a report on the National Asset Database, one of the tools DHS has used to allocate anti-terrorism grants. The report found that the list is critically flawed and does not take into account many high-risk terrorist targets in New York and around the country, while it includes highly unlikely targets such as a popcorn factory and a mule festival as top terror targets. Lowey said it is disgraceful that DHS has wasted time and resources on a database that is practically useless at a time when it has cut critical homeland security funding by 40% for New York and Washington, DC, the top two terrorist targets in the nation.
Some of the other outrageous items included on the list were petting zoos, a Kentucky bourbon festival and golf tournament, bingo and ice cream parlors, a cookie shop, breweries, fishing shops, gyms, pet food makers, redwood trees and an Illinois “Apple and Pork Festival.
“I find it mind-boggling that according to the report, as of January the state of Indiana was the most target-rich in the nation with 8,591 potential terrorist targets, 50 percent more than New York and more than twice as many as California,” added Lowey. “I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, and local officials to overhaul this seriously flawed database and make sure that all federal homeland security dollars are truly distributed based on risk.”
The House has three times passed legislation Congresswoman Lowey, a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, sponsored to require that threat, vulnerability and consequence are the first criteria when it comes to distributing homeland security grant funds. In response to drastic cuts in New York’s homeland security grant funds, she led the effort in the House to restore approximately $750 million for homeland security grant funds in the FY 2007 Homeland Security Appropriations bill.
