US News
U.S. to allocate anti-terrorism funds on a risk basis
By DPA
Jan 3, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Washington - The U.S. will begin awarding 765 million dollars in direct aid to high terrorism threat areas, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday.

The move is sought to address criticism that homeland security funding was too often tied to political considerations instead of to actual risk. In many cases, rural states such as Wyoming and Nebraska were receiving the same amount of money as New York to build up security measures.

'Our security is much too important to be determined with funding decisions that are driven by arbitrary formulas or political formulas or a desire to give everybody a little bit of something,' said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

'What we have to do is drive these decisions by looking at where the major risks are and allocating our priorities accordingly,' he said.

The money will be given to 35 high risk areas, which encompass 95 cities with populations of at least 100,000 people.

Chertoff added that cities determined to be in a high-risk area can apply for the money but have to submit a proposal how the money would be spent.

'That makes sure that not only are we allocating funding based on risk but that the funding is being used to build the kinds of nationally critical capabilities that we've identified,' Chertoff said.