Americans must ask themselves today if they believe we are safer now than we were five years ago. The Republican Rubber Stamp Congress has cut homeland security grant funding, and the Bush Administration has compounded that mistake by failing to spend the money available on the areas most likely to be targeted by terrorists.
The bipartisan, independent 9/11 Commission concluded that homeland security assistance should be allocated based on risks and vulnerabilities. Instead, the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress have reduced vital anti-terror funding for cities such as New York and Washington, D.C. It is unacceptable that homeland security policies are so at odds with the threats facing the American people.