David Price: “I rise in support of H.R. 1544. The bill significantly improves the homeland security application and funding process by…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 1544. The bill significantly improves the homeland security application and funding process by restructuring it in a way that my home State of North Carolina predicts will shorten the time it takes funds to get from the Federal to the local level by about 6 months. The bill also will significantly improve how we assess threats by taking the decision out of the hands of DHS and creating a task force made up of experts from the Federal, State, and local levels and the first responder community to create a comprehensive means of assessing risk. So I feel this bill has a great deal of potential. It could be a very important step in the right direction. But I warn my colleagues that we will fail in our efforts to protect the homeland if we do not take some additional steps, in particular to avoid a trade-off down the road between protecting ourselves against terrorist attacks and preparing for and responding to natural disasters. As we vote on this bill, we are dealing with a presidential budget that would slash Federal funding for our local police by close to 40 percent through massive cuts in Homeland Security and Justice grant programs. The Bush administration continues its trend of shifting money from natural and general disaster preparedness programs.…”