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WASHINGTON,
D.C. – U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) issued “The Bush Administration
Misstatement of the Day” on homeland security.
Testifying
before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Secretary of Homeland Security Tom
Ridge blamed Congress “for not providing enough homeland security money
to cities at a high risk of being attacked by terrorists.” (AP, Congress,
Ridge trade blame on security funding program, June 10, 2004)
President
Bush, however, in his FY’05 budget:
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Guts
the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program by 87 percent,
to $97 million, from $756 million. (New York Times, 5/19/04)
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Cuts
FIRE Act firefighter preparedness grants by $246 million. (CQ, 2/2/04)
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Cuts
$800 million from the Office of Domestic Preparedness, which supplies a
variety of first responder grants to state and local governments. (CQ,
2/2/04)
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Refuses
to provide $779 million to fund biodetection technology that protect against
"anthrax-like" attacks (CQ, 2/2/04)
And,
according to the Washington Post:
“The
White House put government agencies on notice this month that if President
Bush is reelected, his budget for 2006 may include spending cuts for virtually
all agencies in charge of domestic programs, including education, homeland
security and others that the president backed in this campaign year.”
As a result, homeland security funding “would slip in 2006 by $1
billion, to $29.6 billion…” (Washington Post, “2006 Cuts In Domestic
Spending On Table,” May 27, 2004)
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