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NY sens. rebuffed in funds recovery

BY GLENN THRUSH | Newsday Washington Bureau

July 13, 2006

WASHINGTON - Republicans beat back a last-ditch attempt by New York's senators to boost federal homeland security funding by more than $1 billion, in an effort to offset 40 percent in cuts to anti-terror grants to the state and city.

In a procedural vote that split largely along party lines, the GOP-controlled Senate defeated a bid by Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to increase homeland security funding nationwide by $790 million.

Moments later, the Senate defeated an amendment by Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to increase federal transportation security grants by $300 million following the PATH tunnel plot and the deadly Mumbai train bombings.

"Not only has New York been targeted recently, but mass transit in New York [has been targeted], whether it is releasing cyanide on a New York City subway car or trying to blow up the PATH tube," Schumer said.

New York lost $124.5 million funding, in part because the city's proposals weren't well-drafted, according to Bush administration officials.

Senate budget committee chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who voted against the Clinton-Schumer amendments, predicted that the lost funding would be restored next year.

"[New York's] proposals, in fact, were just plain poorly written, not just poorly written, but poorly structured," he said. "I'm certainly expecting that it won't happen again ..."

Schumer mocked the Department of Homeland Security for including potential targets like petting zoos, ice cream parlors and an Amish popcorn museum on a national threat inventory.

House homeland security chairman Peter King (R-Sea- ford) said Homeland Security officials told him a list of grants, published yesterday in The New York Times, wasn't used as a guide for determining funding.

King said the Clinton-Schumer proposals might be helpful in prodding the Bush administration to increase funding in next year's budget or during House-Senate appropriations talks.

"I give them credit," he said. "It's a way of highlighting the issue. I support them."

King says he plans to introduce his own bill boosting transit security aid by $400 million, a move he says is a long shot.