April 10, 2005

Handouts For The Homeland

Rep. Cox Says Bulk Of $10B Not Being Spent To Make America Safer

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By Rebecca Leung

Play CBS Video Video Homeland Funds Misspent?
Rep. Chris Cox, (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told 60 Minutes' Steve Kroft how too much of the $10 billion for homeland security was misspent.

- Is too much of the $10 billion allocated for homeland security being spent to restock police and fire departments? (CBS/AP)
- Rep. Chris Cox tells Steve Kroft that the bulk of security money is not being spent to make America safer. (CBS)
- Newark, N.J., used $250,000 for air-conditioned garbage trucks. (CBS)
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(CBS)
"If you come up with biological or radiological material, you put it in there, and cart it away?" asks Kroft.

"Yeah, it's really state of the art, and we were the first to get it," says Plummer. "I don't think anyone has one."

Plummer says they haven't used the container, which costs $400,000, yet and it's the only one in the United States like it.

The 9/11 Commission recommended that homeland security money be allocated to protect the most vulnerable strategic targets from attacks that would cause the most casualties or economic damage.

But Congress, led by a group of powerful senators from smaller states, had a different plan. It decided to ignore the recommendations and distribute the money much the same as it hands out federal highway funds with everyone getting a share.

"It's pork barrel. It's the kind of distribution of funds that Washington always makes when politics comes before substance," says Cox. "We find that the monies are being doled out not necessarily according to national security risk, but rather, according to political formulas."

"Everyone wants a piece of this pie. And after Sept. 11, it's one of the biggest pies around," says Tom Schatz, who runs a group called Citizens Against Government Waste. He estimates that pork barrel spending on homeland security this year will reach $1.7 billion. "Members of Congress have figured out how to get their hands on homeland security pork," says Schatz.

Why else, he asks, would the state of Oklahoma, which is a land-locked state, get federal funds designated for port security?

"They have a river somewhere. And that is included under this maritime security provision that was passed by Congress," says Schatz.

Continued