King warns of NY homeland security funding cuts
By John CallegariLong Island Business News
{August 24, 2011}
With the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks fast approaching, homeland security is again re-emerging as a key topic among politicos.
Speaking at a homeland security event at Dowling College Wednesday morning, Rep. Peter King, R-Seaford, chairman of The House Committee on Homeland Security, said many things had changed since the 9/11 attacks, although the threat of constant danger was not one of them.
“In my numerous homeland security roles, I get briefings from the inside-out and outside-in, and all I can tell you is that any given time, there are several active plots planned by terrorists against us,” King told a crowd of law enforcement officials and public safety professionals. “Just as we have adapted, Al Qaida has adapted.”
While King has been a power player in maintaining a high level of government funding for homeland security measures in New York, the congressman said that funding is now in danger with the multitude of funding cuts proposed by Congress, which he said would equate to 50 percent of the total funding to the Empire State.
Although King said he would be pushing to restore that funding, he said more support would have to come from the private sector to help deter another terrorist attack.
“The only way to win the war is with intelligence, and to do that, we’re going to need as much cooperation as possible,” King said. “The private sector has to play a greater role in that.”