US likely to restore transit security cuts

[Jon8503]

By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press | July 9, 2005

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 likely to be reversed when Congress returns next week.

At a minimum, the Senate will restore the $50 million cut, G. William Hoagland, top budget aide to Senate majority leader Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, said yesterday.

There is pressure for a lot more, although 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.

Despite the March 2004 bombing of Madrid's subway system, US officials have been consumed with preventing a repeat of the airliner hijackings that produced the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/08/congress.transitsecurity.ap/