Sean Patrick Maloney: “the al Qaeda has not gone away, and we know al Qaeda does not choose its targets at random, it chooses targets to…”

“the al Qaeda has not gone away, and we know al Qaeda does not choose its targets at random, it chooses targets to inflict the greatest numbers of casualties, to do the greatest damage economically, and to get the most publicity. Just last week, we were reminded that New York is still a target when the Attorney General announced that an al Qaeda terrorist was targeting the Brooklyn Bridge. He was deterred from attacking the bridge by the efforts of the New York Police Department. This is just one example of how since 9/11 a large share of the burden of providing for the national defense has fallen on our cities. In Congress we have provided some funds to help. We even sent part of the money to where the need is. In fiscal year 2003, we provided $2.9 billion for grants to State and local governments to help them prepare for and defend against terrorist attacks. We even said that $800 million of that should be directed to where the threat is greatest. That is about 30 percent. The rest of the fund went out under a formula that is entirely unrelated to where the terror threat is. Under this bill as it is currently drafted for the next fiscal year, that 70 percent will increase to nearly 83 percent. Our effort to protect the most likely targets of terrorism is moving backwards.”