White House To Slash Terror Funding For NYC

The White House plans on slashing funding to keep New York City safe from terrorists. The news comes 11 days after the Times Square terror scare. When you think about it, it’s a move that seems to defies logic. Less than two weeks after the failed Times Square bombing attempt, an attack believe to be hatched by the Pakistani Taliban, terror funds are being cut. The official numbers were released Wednesday afternoon.

“This is definitely a slap in the face to New York,” said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

What King is angry about is a decision by the Department of Homeland Security to cut funding for counterterrorism in New York City just days after Faisal Shahzad tried to detonate a car bomb in Times Square.

The move cuts funding for area mass transit security by $42 million – 27 percent – and for port security by $11.2 million, or 25 percent.

Officials said the move will affect efforts to beef up security on subways, buses, bridges, rail lines, and the ports themselves.

“That money coudl have been used for tunnel hardening, it could have been uses for communications systems. It could have been used for detection equipment. It could have been used for training. That’s $40 million that was cut on port security,” said King. “We have book keepers in the budget office that are putting dollars and sense before human life.

New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer released a statement demanding Homeland Security reconsider: “For the administration to announce these cuts two weeks after the attempted Times Square bombing shows they just don’t get it and are not doing right by New York City on anti-terrorism funding. We urge them to reconsider this decision. Instead of distributing funding all over the country, they should focus their attention where the greatest threat exists, right here in New York.”

CBS 2 learned President Obama will visit NYPD headquarters in lower Manhattan on Thursday afternoon. The president will meet with members of the NYPD to thank them for their work in handling the Times Square bomb scare.

Later in the evening, he’s scheduled to attend a Democratic fundraiser.

{CBS 2/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}