Your Homeland Security Dollars At Work
Tonight, our colleague Armen Keteyian takes a look at how the money for Homeland Security is being spent. His producer Phil Hirschkorn gives us a preview. - Ed
This year, the federal Department of Homeland Security distributed nearly $2 billion in grants to states, with every state getting a slice of the pie. We've set out to explore what individual states are doing with the money. Our first stop – profiled on tonight's CBS Evening News -- was Montana, which received $8 million in 2006 and a total of $70 million since 9/11.
Like most states, Montana has sent its emergency responders on shopping sprees, gearing up for potential terrorist attacks that arguably will never come its way. We found Montana emergency responders very professional and prepared, carrying out a well-considered state plan. The state has divided itself into six regions surrounding its main population centers, and deployed its resources accordingly. Bozeman is one of the cities whose fire department now possesses a shiny Hazmat trailer that costs $400,000 when fully equipped. And we couldn't avoid doing a double take when we saw a brand new $250,000 mobile command post -- a giant trailer sitting in a Helena parking lot -- waiting to be deployed to its first emergency.
Homeland Security and Montana officials defend these expenditures -- saying every state must have a base-line of "all-hazards" training. Hurricane Katrina further justified this way of thinking. Of course, Montana's responders are more likely to be hit by forest fires, as they were this summer, than by al Qaeda.
So why do sparsely-populated states receive millions in federal homeland security dollars? We found it comes down to Congress, which has mandated that every state get at least .75% of the Homeland Security grant pie. With 50 states, at least 40% of the funds are allocated by DHS without regard to risk. Some critics, like 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean, consider the grants little more than political pork – favors that have little to do with a key recommendation of the Commission: that funding parallel risk.
For example, the State of New York, target of 9/11 and other terror plots, received about 9-and-half dollars per resident this year ($9.54) in DHS grants. Montana got almost as much, about 8-and-half dollars ($8.43). Sparsely populated North Dakota got almost 17-dollars per resident ($16.94), Wyoming…15 dollars ($15.06), and Alaska…12-and-half ($12.49).
In future reports, we intend to give viewers a closer look at how these federal dollars are being spent -- or misspent. Our next stop: Arizona.