Napolitano drops the other shoe on transit security funding
(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation, May 17) Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security was not happy with the very public beating the agency took in the New York tabloids and from New York pols on transit security funding last week. Last week, after a Congressional Briefing, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Peter King (R-Long Island) went out guns a'blazing, hammering DHS for what they called a $42 million cut in transit security funding and an $11 million cut in port security. The White House says, if you account for stimulus funding, New York got an increase in both these areas. (Here's the breakdown.)
WNYC's Bob Hennelly got hold this weekend of a letter Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wrote to Representative Peter King, (R- Long Island) claiming New York has more than $275 million in port and transit security funds it hasn't spent. New York officials are blaming FEMA for tying up the funding. Apparently, Napolitano, who is from Arizona, has a bit of Brooklyn in her.
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