Reply #: Congress Likely to Restore Transit Funds

[opusprime]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050708/ap_on_go_co/congress_transit_security

WASHINGTON - Three weeks before London's bus and subway bombings, a Senate committee voted to slash spending on mass transit security in the United States, a decision sure to be reversed when Congress returns next week.
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At a minimum, the Senate will restore the $50 million cut, G. William Hoagland, top budget aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Friday.

There is pressure for a lot more, though adding to rail and transit security programs means cutting elsewhere in the
Homeland Security Department's $32 billion budget for next year. That places severe limits on what Congress can do — at least if it plays by its budget rules.

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In a stroke of bad timing, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted last month to slash money for rail and transit security grants to state and local government by a third from the $150 million devoted to them this year. As of May, none of the money had been distributed by the Homeland Security Department.


WHOOPS... Break out the waffle iron, time to flip flop.