Less Than Two Weeks After Attempted Times Square Bombing, Dept. of Homeland Security Announces $53 Million In Cuts To NYC Funds

WASHINGTON — Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ-07) today criticized an announcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security late Wednesday that it is moving to make up to $53 million in cuts to anti-terror funding to New York City, fewer than two weeks after cops helped thwart and attempted car bombing in Times Square. The Seventh District lawmaker called on President Obama to immediately reconsider the decision. 

“In my opinion it is unconscionable that the Department of Homeland Security would announce these crippling cuts to the city’s terror-fighting budget just eleven days after the attempted Times Square bombing,” Lance said. “As President Obama visits New York City today to praise those first responders who helped thwart the car-bombing, I call on him to reconsider this short-sighted and dangerous decision.”

On May 1, the NYPD - responding to a street vendor's observation that an abandoned SUV in Times Square was smoking - intervened in the attempted bombing, which Attorney General Eric Holder last Sunday said was aided by Pakistani Taliban.

The $53 million in cuts amount to about 25 percent reduction for port security, and another 27 percent reduction for transit security, according to several news reports.

As a member of Congress, Leonard Lance has been a strong supporter of the region’s homeland security funding. Earlier this year Congress Lance voted in favor of legislation (H.R. 2611) that would restore funding cuts to the “Securing the Cities Initiative,” a partnership among federal, state and local authorities to prevent nuclear and radiological terrorism through a ring of detection devices in and around the New York metropolitan area. This legislation passed the House on January 20, 2010.

And last year, following the elimination of funding for the Securing the Cities Initiative Congressman Lance voted for an amendment to the fiscal year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Act to fully restore the necessary $40 million in funding.

“I am particularly concerned that the next terrorist attack against New York City will be launched from the suburbs as happened in London and Madrid. That’s why I will continue my efforts to ensure that our region receives the Homeland Security funding necessary to provide our first responders with the tools they need to protect our communities from terror,” Lance concluded.

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