By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 14, 2007; B05

The Department of Homeland Security will increase a key anti-terrorism grant for the D.C. area by one-third this year, to $61.6 million, but local officials said the amount still doesn't reflect the grave risk facing the region.

"It's better, but not enough," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who disclosed the figure. "This is the capital of the free world. We have to assume it is at or near the top of most terrorists' target lists."

The grant is critical to the area's spending on anti-terrorism equipment, training, planning and exercises. A U.S. intelligence report warned this week that al-Qaeda is becoming better positioned to attack the West.

The Homeland Security program will distribute $746 million in anti-terrorism funds, based on risk, to 45 metropolitan regions this year. Officials from the Washington and New York areas were outraged last year when their grants were cut by 40 percent.

Homeland Security is expected to announce the grant totals next week, but advance notice was given to congressional representatives. Two legislators confirmed the D.C.-area total, with one speaking on condition of anonymity because the news is not public. A Homeland Security spokesman declined to comment.

The D.C. area had asked for $140 million in its grant this year.

"That's what we feel we need," said Robert P. Crouch Jr., Virginia's top homeland security official. He said, though, that the $61.6 million "is certainly a good improvement over last year," when the region got $46 million.

The House majority leader, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), agreed that the current grant is an improvement but said it is not sufficient.

"At a time when we are hearing that al-Qaeda has reconstituted itself to pre-9/11 capabilities, the Department of Homeland Security ought to provide a level of resources that reflects the region's unique security status," he said in a statement.

Legislators from the region pressed Homeland Security to change its grant formula after last year's surprise cuts. Davis held a hearing on the matter; Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) wrote a letter to the department, signed by other legislators, protesting the reductions.

Moran said he was pleased with the current grant, even though it lags behind the $77 million the D.C. area got in 2005.

Homeland Security officials redesigned the program this year, reserving 55 percent of the funds, $410 million, for the six top-priority areas: Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and San Francisco.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said she would urge the Democratic majority in Congress to take steps to boost the grant further.