WASHINGTON, June 2 (UPI) -- DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said the decrease in anti-terror funding for New York City is not a cut, but year-to-year budgetary juggling.
"It's only a reduction when you look at the year (New York received the highest amount) rather than the aggregate," the Department for Homeland Security secretary said at the Brookings Institution Thursday.
It's important for the other cities at risk to catch up in terms of preparedness, he said.
"A very simplistic view of our awards, with respect to this particular year's urban grants, had a headline that said we were cutting into New York. If you look at the total number of awards at all levels, you realize that both New York City and New York state got tremendous amounts of money," he said.
The drop in anti-terrorism dollars allotted for New York City and Washington prompted an editorial in The New York Daily News calling for Chertoff's firing. Washington Mayor Anthony Williams also spoke out against the cuts.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, New York has ranked number one on the DHS list of terrorism risk in urban areas, he said.
Chertoff said that the media has taken the 2006 funding amounts out of context.
In 2003, New York received $150 million and in 2004, $46 million. Last year, DHS gave New York $207.6 million to make up for the previous year, he said.
For 2006, the agency has earmarked $124.5, which represents about 18 percent of the total funding, the average that New York has received in the past four years, he said.
Since DHS began giving out anti-terrorism grants, New York has received a total of about a half billion dollars, twice as much as Los Angeles, the next highest ranked city in terms of risk, he said.
"When people make comparisons I think it's important not only to look at the whole context, but to understand part of our obligation is to not only make sure that our highest risk cities are continuing to build on a base of security but that ... we elevate those other cities that do not have a baseline," he said.
