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Flash: DHS Disputes Al-Qaeda's 5-Star Rating of Two U.S. Cities
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff tried to tamp down the controversy in a speech later at the Brookings Institution, arguing that "it's only a reduction if you choose to look at the highest year of funding" -- which happens to be last year. This explanation didn't satisfy, and Chertoff, barraged by questions on the subject, became petulant, saying that "threatening the secretary is not a way to drive funding decisions," and "there's a little bit of the quality of what-have-you-done-for-me-yesterday about some of the criticism."
Foresman, the undersecretary for preparedness and Henke's boss, avoided the controversy as he spoke to the Citizen Corps yesterday. "We have a moment in time where we've got sustained federal funding to states and communities," he told the group.
Washington SketchA national political reporter for the Post, Milbank writes Washington Sketch, an observational column about political theater in the White House, Congress and elsewhere in the capital. He covered the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns and President Bush's first term. Before coming to the Post as a Style political writer in 2000, he covered the Clinton White House for the New Republic and Congress for the Wall Street Journal. |
Sign Up for RSS FeedSustained? The urban terrorism funds are to be cut 14 percent overall.
Approached by reporters after his speech, Foresman allowed that the new formula isn't just about a city's risk; he said there's also an "effectiveness" score, rating each city on "how well are they able to articulate the application of resources." Washington and New York were, evidently, not as "articulate" as DHS desired. Never mind that the urban grants were supposed to balance out other counterterrorism programs that, under a formula imposed by Congress, give disproportionate money to such strategic hubs as Vermont, North Dakota and Wyoming.
A reporter asked Foresman how he can be sure the new criteria are valid. "Good question," he allowed.
The lady from Missouri entertained no such uncertainty. "I'm happy to defend it," Henke said before her speech, in which she boasted that "we have accomplished a tremendous amount."
Asked later if she expected the uproar, she replied: "There's no getting around the outburst coming. Risk exists elsewhere in the nation and we have done a much better job at identifying, calculating and analyzing that risk."
And besides, she added, "you have sites in Wyoming that have risks associated with them."
It's true: The bison of Grand Teton have lived in fear of al-Qaeda long enough.
