WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- President Bush Thursday is set to announce that he will seek "unprecedented" funding for state and local governments for police, firefighters and medical personnel as part of his homeland security initiative, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge told the U.S. Conference of Mayors Wednesday.
Ridge said the funding in the 2003 budget Bush will propose to Congress next week is designed to help implement a "seamless national strategy on terrorism" in which the local, state and federal government would work together.
"This theme of partnership is an important one as the president gets ready to announce the homeland security initiatives in this year's budget," Ridge said. "It includes unprecedented support for our nation's first responders -- the police officers, the firefighters, the medical personnel who died for their country on Sept. 11."
The mayors announced Wednesday that U.S. cities have spent more than $2.1 billion on homeland security since Sept. 11, just as tax income has plummeted. But despite the announcement, many mayors and local officials predicted a major scrap with the White House over the way that money is doled out. Mayors are worried the Bush will cut off key funding for cities and direct it to states instead.
"I understand, as a former governor, that mayors of cities have great concern that the federal government will authorize and appropriate large sums of money and that there may be delays or impediments to the money flowing to your individual communities," Ridge acknowledged. "I will assure you that I am very mindful of the way to give you flexibility to meet your needs in a timely way."
Separately, Ridge said the White House continues to work with local officials to provide them with more useful details when the country goes on national alert as it did several times in the months following Sept. 11 -- but with no information on how or what the unidentified threat could mean.
Mayors said the White House and local officials are working on a system that will disseminate threat information to states and local governments using five tiers of threats. Ridge said the system will provide more "context and texture" to the warnings coming out of the White House since Sept. 11 that local officials have characterized as both frightening and unclear.
With respect to the budget, however, mayors and local officials are already concerned about the announcement set for Thursday.
Those local officials and mayors expressed concern that the Bush budget will drastically restructure key funding streams that have traditionally gone directly to cities, and funnel the money to states instead. The concern, mayors said, is that key law enforcement programs and other security programs that have already proven their worth will actually lose money as governors direct it to other, state-wide priorities.
"I think the big issue is going to be the methodology of distribution," Gary, Ind., Mayor Scott L. King said. "Is it going to go through the states to the locals, or directly to the locals?"
United Press International has learned that in the upcoming 2003 budget, the Bush administration will propose restructuring payments of more than $1 billion that will flow to local law-enforcement programs. The budget will direct huge amounts of money to states instead of localities and devise new formulas for handing out the money, congressional sources and local officials said.
For example, Bush's budget will likely reorganize funding for the Community Oriented Policing Program, a Clinton-era plan dubbed COPS, which was designed to put 100,000 more police officers on community streets. That program, which funnels $1 billion per year to local police departments, has resulted in the hiring of 73,000 police officers, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee. It has also become extremely popular among police chiefs and mayors.
"We have heard rumblings that the COPS program will be severely cut," said Margaret Aitken, spokeswoman for Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. "We are immensely concerned that not only is this ill-conceived, but it is poorly timed."
Any changes proposed by the White House would be included in the Bush administration's budget due for delivery to Congress next month. But Congress must then decide how to implement that budget. Biden has already vowed to restore the cuts and has introduced legislation designed to strengthen the program further.
"Senator Biden will do whatever is necessary legislatively to restore the program," Aitken said.
Another possible bone of contention is local law enforcement block grants: direct money to local law enforcement to the tune of more than $500 million per year. Bush's budget last year already cut funding by more than $100 million. Local officials said Bush would seek to send that money to states and that even less would make it to local law enforcement agencies in the end.
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(Mark Benjamin is UPI's Congressional Bureau Chief and Nicholas M. Horrock is Chief White House correspondent.)
