Feds' budget cuts homeland security grant

WASHINGTON -- Last Friday's budget-slashing deal to keep the federal government open was a mixed bag for Long Island, reducing a key homeland-security grant program but preserving funds for research, Pell Grants and Head Start, lawmakers said Tuesday.

Nassau and Suffolk county officials and local members of Congress said they were still assessing the impact of the deal's $38.5 billion in funding cuts for the nearly six months left in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

The biggest concern to emerge Tuesday was a nearly 20 percent cut to a key homeland security program called the Urban Area Security Initiative, which funds police and other anti-terrorism activities in the highest-risk cities.

The deal cuts the program from its 2010 level of $887 million to $725 million to be shared by New York City and 64 other cities nationally, said Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford).

"It's certainly not ideal," said King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who said he would ask Homeland Security Department officials to shrink the number of cities eligible for the program's reduced funds.

The good, King said, was that it funds the Securing the Cities program, which pays for equipment and efforts to prevent a "dirty bomb" or radiation attack, at $20 million, and about $18.5 million of that sum would go to New York City.

The deal also funds security grants for ports and for transit at $250 million each, King said. That's a cut of $50 million each from the 2010 level, but the amount is still $150 million each more than the House GOP proposed, he said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) said the House GOP's cuts to Pell Grants for college tuition also were reversed in the deal, preserving the current $5,500 level per student.

But Bishop said he did not know what the impact on Long Island would be from about $450 million in cuts to the Corps of Engineers, particularly on the need for an emergency dredging of Lake Montauk.

Aides to Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Roslyn Heights) said Long Island will be affected by shrinking programs such as the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy grants, which the deal cuts by $438 million.

The House and Senate are expected to vote on the deal tomorrow. It is expected to pass both houses.

"We're still sorting our ways through the details," Bishop said. "But based on what I know, I have a much higher comfort level than I did 72 hours ago."