Congress ponders homeland security funding options.

As cities continue to serve as the front fine of defense in the nation's homeland security efforts against terrorism, Congress began considering options for funding this new priority last week during a series of Senate Appropriations Committee hearings.

"Cooperation must exist on all levels if the United States is going to be truly prepared for future terrorist attacks," said Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.).

"We can take preemptive measures to combat terrorism on the home front with a health care system prepared to respond to bioterrorism, a safer food and water supply, more secure airports and railroads, stringent border security, and state and local law enforcement officials who are trained and prepared to handle a terrorist attack. These critical efforts will help to ensure that all Americans have confidence in their state and local emergency response preparedness should, God forbid, another attack occur on our shores," Byrd said.

Mayor Michael Guido of Dearborn, Mich., testified before the committee on behalf of the National League of Cities, discussing municipal priorities for supplemental spending in fiscal year 2002 and the fiscal year 2003 appropriations process.

"Cities need direct federal funding for preparedness and must be recognized as the focal point for all disaster mitigation and recovery activities in any strategic counterterrorism plan," said Mayor Guido, co-chair of NLC's Working Group on Homeland Security. "In most situations, it is local first responders who are managing the emergency response and recovery operations for a disaster for at least six hours before outside resources arrive. Having the proper training, equipment, communications and planning in place for crisis and consequence management is extremely crucial for local governments.

"It is our goal that better coordination at the federal level and direct assistance to local governments will enable us to avoid duplication of effort, gain greater clarification about the types of federal counterterrorism programs available to assist local governments, and ultimately improve early detection, warning, and response capabilities against the use of weapons of mass destruction," he said.

Mayor Guido expressed NLC's strong support for a federal homeland security block grant to cities and towns (modeled after the Community Development Block Grant program), as well as full funding for existing programs -- such as Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant -- that directly impact homeland security and local public safety.

Specific concerns were outlined regarding immediate funding in FY 2002 supplemental appropriations for planning, upgrading emergency communications systems, and some overtime expenses for first responders.

"If local governments have access to resources for these purposes, we will be in a much better position to maximize the use of proposed funding such as the Homeland Security Block Grant Act or the First Responder Initiative in FY 2003," Guido stated, along with NLC positions that call for:

* waiving matching funds requirements for proposed homeland security grants;

* resolving voice and data communications interoperability problems often experienced by first responders;

* strengthening the capacity of public health systems and coordination with first responders for preparedness against bioterrorism; and

* authorizing the Office of Homeland Security as a Cabinet-level agency with its own budget authority and congressional oversight, and the authority to coordinate all federal spending and activities related to terrorism prevention and response.

NLC's testimony also included goals urging the federal government to increase the capacity of the agency designated to administer homeland security grants to ideally function as both a grants management center and as a clearinghouse in providing a composite list of all federal grants, as well as training programs and technical assistance available to local governments for counterterrorism, which currently span more than 40 federal agencies.

The administering agency should have the capability to educate local jurisdictions about successful examples of regional planning and mutual aid agreements, vulnerability assessments, information sharing, model procedures, terrorism consequence plans and other relevant guidance.

Along with Mayor Martin O'Malley of Baltimore and County Commissioner Javier Gonzales of Santa Fe County, N.M., Mayor Guido fielded a number of questions from ranking committee member Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Sens. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) regarding intergovernmental coordination, funding formulas and current local expenditures for homeland security, which could exceed $2 billion by the end of the fiscal year, according to a recent NLC survey.

The Senate Appropriations Committee plans to hold a second round of hearings in late April or early May to hear from federal officials regarding the $38 billion fiscal year 2003 homeland security budget and the administration's recent $28.6 billion supplemental appropriations request.

The Senate Judiciary Committee also passed legislation, S. 924, to reauthorize the COPS program last week by unanimous consent.

If fully funded, the bill would provide $1.15 billion per year over six years to fund up to 50,000 new police officers, assist police departments in purchasing high-tech crime fighting tools and help local prosecutors' offices interact more efficiently with the communities they serve, according to Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del), chairman of the Judiciary Sub-committee on Crime and Drugs.

"There could not be a worse time to virtually wipe out this program," said Biden, author of the original crime bill that created COPS. "Right now, towns and cities across the nation are stretched to the breaking point. Federal resources are focused more on homeland security and terrorism. Clearly, we should provide additional anti-terrorism funding to protect the United States, but we cannot ignore the crimes that make our neighborhoods unsafe.

"We can't expect local law enforcement agencies to keep our streets safe if we do not give them the resources they need to hire officers and purchase equipment," Biden said.

NLC Past President Mayor Glenda Hood of Orlando, Fla., conveyed NLC's strong support of the COPS program last month before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs.