Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Senators urging Budget Committee to restore funding for first responders

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2004 15:52:57 -0500

Senators urging Budget Committee to restore funding for first responders

March 02 13:16:00, 2004

WASHINGTON—A bi-partisan group of 23 senators are urging the Senate
Budget Committee to reject a Bush administration proposal that would cut
state and local first-responder grants by $1 billion.

“The administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2005 would provide
the State Homeland Security Grant program with only $700 million, $1
billion less than last year. The budget also proposes to eliminate the
baseline level of funding to each state,” reads a letter sent Feb. 27.
“Reducing the level of funding for the State Homeland Security Grant
program would hurt the ability of our first responders to prevent and
respond to a terrorist attack. Eliminating this baseline level of
funding will make it virtually impossible for states and localities to
conduct emergency planning activities since they will not have any idea
of how much funding will be available to them next year.”

These grants represent a stable and predictable funding source for
states and localities to protect the homeland, said the senators.

“Every state and local government, regardless of its size, faces
increased costs in responding to the heightened level of security. Each
and every state must train its first responders,” said the senators.
The Bush administration’s cut in the first-responder grant program has
been a target of Democrats.

“Knowing that our first responders’ lives depend on good communications,
when Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge appeared before our committee
earlier this month, I asked him to explain why those funds were deleted.
I was disappointed to hear his view that there is enough grant money out
there to handle the job. From my conversations with the local first
responders in my district and throughout Los Angeles, I have not found
anyone who agrees with that assessment,” said Rep. Jane Harman
(D-Calif.), a member of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security,
at a Feb. 25 press conference called to lambaste the Bush budget.

Ridge is scheduled to appear before the House Budget Committee on
Wednesday.

In other homeland-security events, the FCC’s Media Security and
Reliability Council met for the final time and adopted a set of best
practices for the media sector. There had been some thoughts that the
MSRC, a federal advisory committee created by the Federal Communications
Commission, would mandate that mobile-phone carriers be included in the
emergency alert system. While there were broad references to new
technologies, there was no specific mandate adopted that will include
mobile phones.

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=17136

--
    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
  Note The New address
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

  "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

  "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
     The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

-- 
    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
  Note The New address 
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

  "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

  "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
     The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEXTEL-1/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     [email-masked]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/