Senate Is Split on Spending Bill for Domestic Security

As they began debate Monday on a $31.9-billion domestic security bill, members of the Senate agreed that last week’s terrorist bombings in London underscored the need to make Americans safer. But they split sharply on how best to spend the limited dollars available.

Senators from urban areas, many of them Democrats, pointed to the attacks on London’s mass transit system as evidence that it was time to focus on firefighters, emergency response teams and others who must deal with terrorist episodes -- groups that have not always come out on top in the competition for federal funds.

On the other side were senators -- many of them Republicans -- who said money could be better spent on intelligence, tighter border security and other efforts aimed at preventing attacks in the first place.

The latter approach is the one generally favored by President Bush and his new secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff. But with the horrific attacks on bus and subway passengers fresh in voters’ minds, the strategy debate has become politically sensitive.

Judd Gregg (R.-N.H.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on domestic security and GOP manager for the bill, acknowledged, “Obviously today, after London, many people will see a threat that needs more attention is mass transit.” And, he said, “I couldn’t agree more.”

But Gregg quickly added, “We could increase security to the point of dysfunction. The way you protect your mass transit system is through aggressive and robust intelligence.”

The split was further subdivided as senators from small states insisted that their constituents deserved a significant share of domestic security funds even though experts considered them less likely than large urban states to be targeted by terrorists.

Because Republicans control the Senate, the largely Democratic effort to give higher priority to first responders and local security measures took the form of a stream of proposed amendments.

None came to a vote Monday.

The proceedings were interrupted first by a moment of silence in tribute to the London victims and then by a noisy interlude as senators chatted while voting, 76 to 0, on a resolution condemning the bombings and expressing sympathy for the victims.

The pending bill, approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee, 28 to 0, on June 16, would increase funding to pay for 1,000 new border agents and 300 new criminal investigators for customs and immigration work and to expand detention facilities to house an additional 2,240 illegal immigrants.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection division of the Department of Homeland Security would receive an 11% increase in funding, to $6 billion. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement division would receive 16% more money, for a total of $3.8 billion.

The Senate bill also provides $51 million for video and electronic surveillance technology to help secure the border.

The boost for border security comes at a price, however: State and local grants, which cover aid to first responders and other local needs, are cut by 12% in the committee bill. Firefighter assistance grants, for instance, would fall $100 million below 2005 levels. The bill also cuts funding for the Transportation Security Administration, which includes responsibility for airline security, by 5%, to $6 billion. That would force the agency to reduce its staff of screeners, possibly by as many as 1,000.

And the Senate bill would cut rail security grants by one-third, to $100 million.

The American Public Transportation Assn. has said mass transit systems need $6 billion to better protect their passengers.

The administration’s focus on aviation security has long been a point of contention for senators and others who believe it shortchanges other, larger needs. The TSA’s 2006 budget allocates $4.7 billion for air security, compared with $32 million for passenger rail and mass transit.

Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) offered amendments to bolster mass transit security spending, from Schumer’s proposed doubling of funds to $200 million to Clinton’s suggested increase to $1.3 billion.

“I know we cannot provide all the funding many of us believe is necessary,” Clinton said, “but we certainly must do more than the $100 million in the Senate bill.”

Many amendments brought competition between urban and rural areas to the fore.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) proposed a provision that domestic security grants be allocated on the basis of “threat, vulnerability and consequence” -- a formulation that would favor densely populated areas, considered more likely targets for terrorists than thinly populated areas.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), head of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, which oversees the Homeland Security Department but does not write its appropriations bills, introduced an amendment to reduce minimum funding guaranteed to each state.

An analysis by the Congressional Research Service found, however, that the Collins amendment applied its “guaranteed minimums” over a larger funding base, thereby increasing the amount of money guaranteed to low-risk states.

The spending bill passed by the House also provides $31.9 billion but differs from the Senate bill in details.

The House would increase Transportation Security Administration funding 7% and cut funding for a Coast Guard modernization program. The Senate bill would nudge up Coast Guard funding $211.5 million over 2005 levels.

The House rejected an administration suggestion that airline fees be raised to collect $1.7 billion to offset security costs; the increase is not contained in the Senate bill either.

The White House released a statement Monday urging the Senate to “ensure that the direct beneficiaries of aviation security measures bear a greater burden of the cost.”

In its official response to the bill, the administration praised the concentration on border security and the allocation of grants based on risk. It criticized the proposed funding cut for the TSA.