Senators Request Additional $200 Million in Transportation and Port Security Funding
WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) today called for restoration of major cuts in homeland security funding for the nation’s transportation and port security systems in the upcoming fiscal year 2011. Last fiscal year, anti-terror funding for each of these programs was cut by nearly $100 million from the previous year’s funding level of $400 million per program. In a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senators requested funding be restored to fiscal year 2009 levels of $400 million for transportation security funding and $400 million for port security funding.
“Protecting transit and port systems in Pennsylvania and across the nation is essential to the security of our entire country,” said Senator Casey. “We must ensure our states have sufficient funding to train personnel, provide adequate law enforcement and educate the public about potential threats to our most vulnerable cities.”
“We must always remain vigilant in guarding against terrorist attacks and ensure that law enforcement at every level is armed with the resources they need to protect New York and our nation. After the Times Square bomb attempt, we must redouble our efforts to keep Americans safe,” said Senator Gillibrand. “Adequate homeland security funding to secure our transit systems and ports is essential to combat terror attacks.”
In Pennsylvania, funding for the Transit Security Grant Program would be 48.1% below its FY2009 level and the Port Security Grant Program would have declined by 36.9%. This means dramatically fewer dollars would be available for Pennsylvania and states across the nation to protect their transit infrastructure.
Anti-terror funding under the Public Transportation Security Assistance Act mainly goes towards the Transportation Security Program, which would provide security for Pennsylvania transportation systems. The Port Security Grant program would help protect Pennsylvania’s port infrastructure, cargo and passenger terminals, improve risk-management capabilities and increase training.
Currently, the transportation and port security programs are slated to receive $300 million each, which is the same amount budgeted last fiscal year – a $100 million reduction from 2009. While funds from the Recovery Act offset much of last year’s decline, if last year’s funding levels were maintained, funding for the Transit Security Grant Program would be 49% below its FY2009 level and the Port Security Grant Program would have declined by 46.5%.
The letter was co-signed by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Barbara Boxer (D-MD) and Roland Burris (D-IL).
Full text of the letter is below.
Dear Chairman Inouye and Ranking Member Cochran,
We are writing to bring to your attention the urgent need to adequately fund our nation’s transit and port security grant programs. Over the past two Fiscal Years, funding for these programs has been significantly cut, which has in turn lowered the amount of funding available for grants to our respective states. Therefore, we request that you include $400 million for Public Transportation Security Assistance and Railroad Security Assistance, and $400 million for Port Security Grants in the FY2011 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill.
These grants are critical to ensuring that law enforcement in states at high risk of being attacked have the resources that are needed to keep transportation infrastructure safe from the threat of a terrorist attack. We know that transportation systems are often an attractive target for potential terrorists because of the ability to inflict mass casualties and cause major infrastructure damage. We also know that several foiled terrorist plots against major American cities since September 11, 2001 have involved threats against surface transportation. In the last decade, terrorists have successfully attacked the London Underground and the commuter railways of Spain and Russia. We cannot allow that to happen in the United States.
In FY2009, the baseline budgets for the Transit and Port Security grant programs were nearly equal to the funding received in FY2008 of $350 million. Understanding the importance of these programs, Congress sought to ensure that our rail and freight lines as well as our ports continued to upgrade security by adding an additional $150 million to each of these programs through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Nevertheless, last year, the Transit Security Grant Program’s funding decreased by 49.1 percent to $253.4 million and the Port Security Grant Program decreased 46.5 percent to $288 million.
These grants are used for training personnel who protect subways, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure, for public awareness efforts to help citizens to be vigilant against the threats of terrorism, as well as for physically protecting the infrastructure and assets of public transit systems – all crucial components to hardening transit systems against terrorist threats.
The recent attempted attacks on major U.S. cities only solidify the fact that terrorist attacks remain a real threat and this is simply not the time to be cutting funds that help the high-risk states and metropolitan areas protect against terrorism. We look forward to continuing to work with you to address the ongoing needs of homeland security officials in our states.
Thank you for your leadership, and we urge your committee to restore this vital funding.
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