The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security plans to drastically cut security funding for city mass transit and ports less than two weeks after a car bombing attempt in Times Square, lawmakers said on Wednesday.
U.S. Rep. Peter King’s office said the DHS would give the city $111 million for mass transit security, a 27 percent cut from last year’s funding of $153 million.
Port funding would also be cut by 25 percent, from $45 million to $34 million, his office said.
The DHS budget is expected to be officially announced on Thursday, but congressional staffers were briefed on the numbers ahead of the announcement, his office said.
Though the cuts had been expected, that was before the attempted Times Square bombing on May 1, King’s office said.
“The Times Square attempt served as a wake up call for many, but apparently not for the Obama Administration, which should be dramatically increasing New York City’s homeland security funding, not decreasing it,” King said in a statement.
The Republican, who is the ranking member on the Committee on Homeland Security, said the Obama administration’s decision was “dangerous and unconscionable.”
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat, said the cuts show that the administration is “not doing right by New York City on anti-terrorism funding” and urged it to reconsider.
“Instead of distributing funding all over the country, they should focus their attention where the greatest threat exists, right here in New York,” he said in a statement.
DHS said in a statement Wednesday that it was “actively engaged” in supporting the city’s anti-terror efforts through “an array of grant programs.”
The agency said it had awarded more than $457 million to the city in 2009.
The city has said it wants to improve transit security by increasing the number of security cameras in the subway system.
The transit system has been a target of plots in the past, most recently involving suspect Najibullah Zazi, who admitted to leading a plot to bomb New York City subways.