Many state and local governments have yet to receive funding from the $3.5 billion package U.S. President George W. Bush proposed more than a year ago to help them bolster their ability to respond to a terrorist attack, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Jan. 24).

While much of that funding is included in the fiscal 2003 budget approved yesterday by Congressional negotiators, it will take several months before state and local agencies receive any of it, according to the Times.  Because of the delay, many of them have had to put off purchasing equipment that would help personnel respond to a terrorist attack involving weapons of mass destruction, such as protective suits and detection equipment.

“The bottom line for us is that we are no better off than we were on Sept. 11, that we’re not ready for a terrorist strike,” said Mayor John DeStefano of New Haven, Conn., referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington.

Emergency responders, such as firefighters and law enforcement officials, have also complained about the lack of promised funding, especially now that the United States is under a heightened sense of alert, the Times reported (see GSN, Feb. 7).

“I find it ironic that my members are being asked this week to respond to a heightened threat to terrorism, and yet we haven’t received a meaningful dollar in the last 16 months of promises,” said Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

Senior White House officials agreed that the lack of funding has made it more difficult for state and local governments to prepare for future terrorist attacks.

“They still haven’t seen dime one,” Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said after being sworn in last month.  “They’re frustrated, they’re disappointed, they aren’t happy,” he added (Philip Shenon, New York Times, Feb. 13).

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