Report Critical of Anti-Terror Aid Program

More than 80% of federal funding to help local emergency personnel prepare for terrorist attacks is stuck in bureaucratic channels, and much of what was spent has been of questionable use in fighting terrorism, a congressional report released Tuesday concluded.

The House Select Committee on Homeland Security found that the system for distributing $6.3 billion among states and localities since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was flawed from the outset because it failed to ensure that money would be directed toward areas where the threats were greatest.

“The system has provided small counties across the country with relatively large awards of terrorism preparedness money, while major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago struggle to address their needs in a near-constant heightened alert environment,” the report found.

Among the “numerous examples of questionable spending” found in the report was $30,000 in anti-terrorism funding to help buy a defibrillator for a high school in Lake County, Tenn. Macie Roberson, the county executive, said it would be good to have the equipment on hand during the district basketball tournament, according to the report.

“Thus far, most grants are being made without a rigorous assessment of risk,” Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), the committee’s chairman, said Tuesday. He has introduced legislation to reform the system by allocating future funds based on the risk of attack and the magnitude of potential damage.

Funding for “first responders” -- police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians -- has become one of the most contentious issues in relations between the federal government and localities around the country.

Mayors have complained that federal funds simply are not reaching their police and fire departments. Federal officials at the Department of Homeland Security have worried about pumping scarce dollars into areas that may not have urgent needs. Earlier this year an independent study found that Wyoming received far more funding per capita than California.

The report found that $5.2 billion, or 83%, of the $6.3 billion approved by Congress since the terrorist attacks had yet to be distributed to local police, fire and emergency medical personnel.

However, the committee staff concluded that the Homeland Security Department had made funds available to states “reasonably quickly.” Much of the bottleneck was due to delays at the state, county and city levels in developing and filing plans required for spending the money, and in complying with layers of local procurement rules.

In New Hampshire, for example, local equipment purchases must be approved by a town meeting. And town meetings are held only once a year, in March.

Some states were praised as models of efficiency. In New York, because the state set deadlines for local governments to submit their spending plans, localities had spent between 65% and 80% of the funds available under the main Homeland Security grant program.

The report listed California as one of several states in which local procurement rules led to funding delays, but it provided no detail.

If the distribution of funds has been slow, a more fundamental problem seems to be the lack of guidance for determining how the money should be spent, the report found.

“Our concern isn’t speed, but a lack of assessment of risk and, in some cases, no assessment of need,” said Cox.

The report contended that the problem began with Congress, which reserved 40% of the money in the main homeland security grant program to be divided equally among the states. That may sound equitable, but the formula proved much more generous to rural areas than is the case with other federal grant programs, such as highway construction. The Bush administration compounded matters by allocating the remaining 60% based on population, not perceived risk.

“The ramifications of these funding decisions are profound,” the report concluded. Congress approved a second grant program, aimed at high-threat urban areas, but it was not enough to compensate for the imbalance.

The disparity between rural and urban areas can be illustrated by comparing Louisville, Ky., and a county in Wyoming.

Big Horn County, Wyo., received $546,000 in 2003, according to the report. Jefferson County, Ky., which encompasses the city of Louisville, received $783,000. That works out to $47.48 per resident of Big Horn County and only $1.13 for each resident of Jefferson County.

Some small counties don’t know what to do with the money.

Mason County, Wash., located in a logging region, used $63,000 to buy a decontamination unit for dealing with hazardous materials. But the county has no hazmat team, and the equipment is sitting in a warehouse across the street from the sheriff’s office, the report found.

The report quoted Supervisor Mike Thomas of Outagamie County, Wis., describing the equipment available through the program as a “Christmas list ... from a mail-order catalog.”

Missouri used part of its homeland security allocation to buy chemical-biological warfare suits for all 13,000 police officers in the state, regardless of what type of community they worked in. Colchester, Vt., bought a search-and-rescue vehicle that could drill through rubble to find victims of a building collapse.

And agricultural Yadkin County, N.C., bought a mobile decontamination trailer, which could be used in the event of a chemical warfare attack -- or a mere pesticide spill.