By BEVERLEY LUMPKIN
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A House committee chairman accused the Bush administration Friday of protecting the country from terrorism “on the cheap” as lawmakers complained to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff about proposed cuts in emergency communications and other programs.
Visiting Congress for the second time in two days, Chertoff was criticized anew by lawmakers upset with the government’s security efforts, including at the borders and at airports.
“Millions of lives are at stake and we cannot continue to protect the homeland on the cheap,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Chertoff.
At a hearing held by the panel, Thompson and Rep. Peter King of New York, top Republican on the committee, told Chertoff they were unhappy with how the administration is planning to use a $1 billion fund for upgrading communications systems for emergency workers.
“I am deeply concerned by the delay in getting this program up and running,” King said. He said equipment that would let different emergency agencies communicate with each other during disasters — which many are currently unable to do — is “critically important to the nation’s first responders.”
King said the fund is supposed to supplement other aid programs, not be used in lieu of them. Chertoff acknowledged cuts in grant programs, but argued they would be more than offset by the $1 billion.
Chertoff, at the hearing to defend the budget plan, maintained that the department has made progress in building systems to protect the nation.
“We must focus on the greatest risks and be flexible to changing threats, disciplined in our use of resources, and fully committed to building a department that will meet future challenges,” he said in his prepared statement.
As just one example of progress, Chertoff pointed out the department had ended the “catch and release” practice on the border whereby illegal aliens were released on their own recognizance once caught. Many of those illegal aliens were never found again. Now, with 100 percent detention, Chertoff said, the word has gotten out, creating “a strong disincentive to cross illegally in the first place.”
A paper prepared by the panel’s Democratic staff blasts President Bush’s spending blueprint as falling “drastically short in several critical areas,” including securing the borders, ports, mass transit, rail, aviation, cyberspace and critical infrastructure.
Thompson said the administration’s budget proposal would “decimate funding for key homeland security programs” and leave the nation both vulnerable to another attack and grossly unprepared to respond to natural disasters.
King also said there is not enough money in the president’s budget to fund homeland security adequately.
Chertoff on Thursday defended the budget as “sound, simple and ample,” adding that even with an enhanced budget, “we have to exercise fiscal discipline and there are trade-offs.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, King said that what he sees in the budget request for the Homeland Security Department is “almost token increases.”
King says he thinks Chertoff is doing “the best job he can” and now has a decent management team to work with. But King says the budget calls for cuts he strongly opposes in grants to first responders and firefighters.
Even more, he thinks the administration’s “whole philosophy” needs change.
“We’re at war,” he said. “We decide how much we have to spend and then we spend it.” He noted that White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters on Thursday, “You do have to make some choices with the scarce resources available to you.”
King countered: “The resources for Homeland Security should not be scarce. It should not be just another Cabinet department. ... With a $2.9 trillion budget, we should be able to find a few billion more for homeland security. Either we’re at war with Islamic terrorism or we’re not.”
Thompson is also concerned about the budget request for 600 additional detention beds for immigration enforcement. He believes those are not nearly enough if the administration is committed as it has said to increase enforcement against employers who hire illegal aliens.