On October 9, Chairman of the House Special Committee on Homeland Security, Representative Christopher Cox (R-California) introduced “The Faster and Smarter Funding for First Responders Act” (HR 3266). Cox’s bill would completely reshape the way in which ‘first responder’ grants are distributed. The bill would authorize no new funding, but would alter the formula currently used by the Department of Homeland to determine how much each state receives in homeland security grants. DHS currently bases their allocation of funds on threat assessments and populations levels of respective states, which guarantees every state at least some level of funding.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is on record as favoring the use of threat assessments rather than population levels as a basis for creating an allotment formula for homeland security grants. The Bush Administration wants to consolidate all state and local assistance in the Office of Domestic Preparedness in the Homeland Security Department. However, the new grant program in H.R. 3266 would not include Assistance to Firefighter Grants and other programs intended for states and regions which originated before 9/11. The new State and Regional First Responder Grant Program would combine the State Homeland Security Grant Program with the Urban Area Security Initiative Grant Program. These two programs distributed about $2.8 billion in fiscal 2003.

Under the Cox proposal, Secretary Ridge would administer the grants through the Office for State and Local Government Coordination. Grants would go to states and regions with demonstrated threats to their people and critical infrastructure. The Undersecretary for Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection will provide the Secretary will insight and analysis on which states and regions meet this threshold. When the Undersecretary evaluates and prioritizes grant applications, the bill asks the Undersecretary to first consider states and regions with:

• large military and tourist populations
• specific economic sectors or private sector facilities
• major communication nodes
• specific elements of the nation’s food supply water systems
• power plants
• civic infrastructure
• emergency response capabilities
• specific national monuments with numerous tourists
• significant natural resources on which economic sectors or population centers depend
• major transportation systems or nodes

Recipients of grants may use funds for: purchasing or upgrading equipment; exercises to strengthen emergency response; training in the use of equipment; and training for prevention of, preparedness for, or response to attacks involving weapons of mass destruction.

When states or multi-state entities receive grants, they must distribute at least 80% of the money to local governments, first responders or other local groups whom will carry out the homeland security plan called for in the grant application. Each recipient of a grant award will have to submit an annual report to the Secretary documenting the dates such funds were received, the dates such funds were disbursed and how the funds were utilized by the ultimate beneficiary.

H.R. 3266 would also establish an ‘Advisory Council on First Responders’, which will be responsible for providing advice to the Secretary on the need to implement federal standards for first responder equipment and training. The council will report to the head of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination.

Besides consolidating first responder grants, the bill would also update the heavily criticized Homeland Security Advisory System. H.R. 3266 would require that any designation of a threat level be accompanied by a designation of the geographic regions and economic sectors to which the designation applies.

Cox acknowledges that his bill will be politically difficult to pass because some regions like New York and Washington will likely receive more money than rural states like Vermont, Wyoming, Iowa and Vermont. In a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last month, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) told Secretary Ridge that each state should be guaranteed a minimum amount of funding.

Cox recently argued that the system is too politicized and that funds are often bogged down in the bureaucracy and by the states. He wants to make sure the money actually goes to the cities and regions with actual threats . “the threat analysis will permit us to allocate the funds by need, not by political formula , ” he said.

Chairman Cox mentioned that the administration supports most of his bill, but has some issues with other provisions in the bill, which they are communicating to the committee.

Cox wants to hold hearings on his bill and have a committee markup by the end of the month. The Chairman will most likely also seek input from committee Ranking Member Jim Turner (D-Texas), who introduced his own first responder bill, the “Prepare Act” (H.R. 3158). Turner’s bill, which is cosponsored by every democrat on the committee, would establish a national anti-terrorism preparedness standard as the basis for allotting federal dollars for first responder training and equipment.

Also, Christopher Shays (R-Connecticut), Chairman of the Government Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations has his own bill (H.R. 3227), which would also establish a national standard for first responders, and would set a deadline for that standard to be in place.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced yesterday that the federal government had a deficit of $374 billion dollars for fiscal year 2003. While this is still a record, it is less than the $401 billion figure projected by the CBO in August.

The lower figure may reflect some good news about the economy, particularly because $7 billion came from strong corporate income taxes.

GOP leaders in the House and the Senate plan to use the week of October 20th and possibly the week of October 27th to wrap up work on the fiscal year 2004 appropriations bills.

Right now, the top priority for lawmakers is the White House supplemental appropriations request of $87 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. House appropriators will soon draft an omnibus spending bill, which will likely include the six bills that have not been sent to conference yet. The following appropriations bill will likely be included in an omnibus package: Agriculture (HR 2673), Commerce-Justice-State (HR 2799), District of Columbia (HR 2765), foreign operations (HR 2800), Transportation-Treasury (HR 2989) and VA-HUD (HR 2861)

If the omnibus package passes both the House and the Senate next week, it will be sent to a conference committee during the week of October 20th. Conference negotiations over the omnibus spending package are expected to be lengthy and cumbersome, but Republican leaders want Congress to be finished with appropriations by early November. If conferees fail to finish work on an omnibus spending package by October 31st, another interim continuing resolution will have to be passed.

Appropriators in the Senate have expressed interest in moving some of the spending measures individually. However, this looks difficult for Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-Tennessee) to achieve since the fiscal year is already in its second week.

So far, three of 13 total spending bills have been enacted and four are currently being negotiated in conference.

The House Appropriations Committee approved an $86.8 billion package for Iraq and Afghanistan today by a vote of 47-14. The bill is similar to the $87 billion plan that President Bush proposed on Sept. 7. The Senate also plans to vote on its similar version of the bill next week.

The vote came after the White House derailed an attempt to turn the aid into a loan.

Key republican Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tennessee) decided against trying to make half the bill's $18.6 billion for Iraqi rebuilding a loan at the urging of the President and after realizing he lacked the votes to prevail.

The committee voted 36-25 to kill an amendment by Rep. David Obey (D-Wisconsin) that would have moved $4.6 billion from the bill's Iraqi reconstruction funds to the U.S. military. It also would have canceled income tax cuts scheduled for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, enough to raise $87 billion by the end of the decade and pay for the entire bill.

There was also a $100 million for repairing military facilities in Virginia and Maryland that lawmakers said were damaged by last month's Hurricane Isabel.

The bill has $18.6 billion for Iraqi reconstruction, $65.2 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, and $21.6 billion in total reconstruction aid.

The bulk of the money in both categories is for Iraq. The bill includes funds for reconstructing Iraq's water and electricity supplies, oil production facilities, army, police, schools and hospitals.

Leaders of the Senate which is in recess this week, hope to complete work on its version of the bill next week.

A group of Republican senators led by Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) would structure the assistance as a loan, but Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) has said he believes he can derail that effort.