U.S. Response:  White House, Lawmakers Trade Darts Over First Responder Funding

The White House and Republican lawmakers in Congress have exchanged criticism over proposed homeland defense funding for first responders, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

U.S. President George W. Bush criticized Congress last month for only providing $1.3 billion to local governments for homeland defense rather than a proposed $3.5 billion.  Congress “did not respond to the $3.5 billion we asked for — they not only reduced the budget we asked for, they earmarked a lot of the money” for unrelated programs, Bush said (see GSN, Feb. 27).

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young (R-Fla.) responded in kind in a March 6 letter to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.  Young called on Card “to be responsible” and to “move on from this pointless and harmful debate” over the bill passed last month that included funding for first responders.

“I believe White House statements that Congress only provided $1.3 billion for first responders are factually inaccurate because you have narrowly chosen programs that only you believe will support the first-responder community,” Young said in the letter, noting that the bill included almost $3.5 billion “in funding to help support the first-responder community.”

“You can choose to continue the debate on this issue in this fashion, or we can be responsible and address the real issues facing first responders,” Young said.

Card has received Young’s letter and was in discussions with him through Friday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.  “The White House is working closely with Chairman Young and other congressional leaders on our shared commitment to make sure front-line responders in states and localities have the resources they need,” McClellan said (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, March 8).

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International Response:  Security Council Moves To Enhance Counterterrorism Cooperation

At a special meeting yesterday of the U.N. Counterterrorism Committee, some 60 international, regional and subregional organizations agreed to share more information to avoid overlap in efforts against terrorists (see GSN, Feb. 21).

At the end of the one-day meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York, the group issued a joint statement saying it had agreed that “all invited organizations had a specific role to play in enhancing the effectiveness of global action against terrorism,” with participants recognizing the “high value” of international intelligence cooperation.

Organizations at the meeting included the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the League of Arab States, the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Interpol (U.N. release, March 6).

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, in a statement to the committee, stressed the threat of terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction and urged members to follow through with counterterrorism cooperation.

“We all have a stake in this struggle, and we must all feel that we are part of it,” Annan said (U.N. release, March 7).

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