Lt. Gov. Michael Steele has joined the chorus of complaints against the cuts in homeland security grants for urban areas announced Wednesday by the Bush administration.
Steele, a Republican whom the president and his advisers recruited to run for U.S. Senate, objected to the 40 percent cut in the grant to the Washington area and the 60 percent cut to New York City. Baltimore?s grant was only reduced by 15 percent, as was the overall funding for counter-terrorism efforts in cities.
“Congress should immediately reconsider these drastic cuts,” Steele said. “A formula that cuts homeland security funding for Washington, D.C., and New York City ? which have suffered terrorist attacks already ? is simply bad policy.”
Both Republicans and Democrats have criticized the reductions. “These cuts just defy logic,” said Rep. Ben Cardin, a Democratic candidate for Senate.
As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, Cardin had pushed “to make more of the money based on national risk assessment,” a change enacted last year. He said the law was also changed so that “the geographical location of a community should be taken into consideration,” making Baltimore and Washington higher priorities than cities in the Midwest.
