Area's Security Proposal Scored Poorly

Reiskin disputed the idea that the region needs less money because of the federal security presence. Although they were appreciated, "the federal agencies, rightly, are primarily looking out for their own interests. . . . They're not necessarily looking out for the interests of the people of the District" or the suburbs, he said.

The D.C. region's grant is expected to come under scrutiny Thursday at a hearing of the House Committee on Government Reform, led by Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.).

Reiskin and the homeland security directors of Virginia and Maryland were in charge of the Washington region's application. It included input from committees that included, among others, state and local officials, law enforcement officials and first responders.

Reiskin said he has received no feedback other than the standard DHS response form about why the region's submission ranked low.

DHS gave average- or above-average grades for all 12 proposals in the region's application. Nonetheless, one of them -- for homeland security planning and response programs -- was ranked in the lowest 15 percent of all 478 proposed projects nationwide.

That means the region can't use any money for those areas without special permission from Homeland Security and must redo that part of the proposal, according to the DHS form sent to the capital region.

The region's overall proposal got average or better grades for such factors as relevance and feasibility but a below-average mark for innovativeness.

Homeland Security officials would not identify members of the panel that reviewed the D.C. region's application, saying the process was confidential. Foresman said he could not provide specifics on why the application got such ratings.

The District and neighboring states also lost millions each under a separate anti-terror program designed for states. Virginia's grant fell from $34 million last year to $16.8 million for 2006, according to Robert Crouch, homeland security adviser to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D).

Maryland's grant plunged from $39 million to $24.3 million, said Jim Pettit, a spokesman for the state homeland security director, Dennis Schrader. The District's grant dropped from $9.2 million to $4.3 million.