Washington Post: Local Anti-Terror Programs Scaled Back
Cuts in Federal Funding Force Changes to Security Projects
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Local officials will spend $4 million to relocate Metro's control center outside the District but will scale back other anti-terrorism projects -- from a regional communications system to the purchase of extra hospital beds -- because of a sharp decline in federal funds, according to an announcement Wednesday.
After weeks of discussions, officials released a breakdown of how they plan to spend a $46 million Homeland Security grant for the capital region. The grant amount, announced several weeks ago, was 40 percent less than the Washington area received last year, prompting outrage in an area targeted in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks....
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Among the biggest losers from the funding cutback is a high-tech regional communications system that would allow officials to exchange data -- such as maps of emergency sites -- over a secure network. Local authorities had hoped to invest $25 million in the system this year; instead it will get $5.5 million....
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Also reduced was funding for hospitals to buy extra beds and equipment to cope with a crisis. Last year that program disbursed $4 million locally; this year it will have $700,000....
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Some anti-terror programs got little or no money. For example, an $8 million plan to upgrade bomb squads throughout the region was scrapped. And no funds were provided to Prince George's County for a radio communications system that would allow communications with first-responders from surrounding counties and the District, which the county's homeland-security director called his "No. 1 priority."....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/19/AR2006071901454.html