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Bush Vows to Double Funding for Domestic Security
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| Bush: "This is a two-front war. Overseas, we're fighting and a home we're fighting." |
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. President George W. Bush said Thursday he wants to devote nearly $38 billion to preparing for and preventing domestic terror attacks, with special emphasis on bolstering the "first responders" - police, firefighters and emergency medical teams.
"The first minutes or hours after an attack are the most hopeful minutes for saving lives," Bush said. "We've got to remember the role of the first responders. It became vivid, obviously, on Sept. 11."
In a speech to state mayors, Bush proposed $37.7 billion for homeland security in his fiscal 2003 budget plan, with $3.5 billion - "a 1,000 percent increase," he said - going to state and local emergency responders. The overall domestic security budget would almost double from $19.5 billion.
Bush added the money represents the start of a focus on domestic defense that will last throughout his presidency.
"We're still under attack," Bush said in a White House speech to U.S. mayors. "[Al-Qaeda] still want to come after us. These are evil people that are relentless in their desire to hurt those who love freedom. This is a two-front war. Overseas, we're fighting and at home we're fighting."
With Thursday's announcement, Bush sought to boost Americans' confidence that emergency teams in their own neighborhoods are taking steps to prepare for an attack. He assigned the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate terror response with local officials, and urged the mayors to set aside politics and cooperate with the federal government.
Bush has said he will spend what it takes to protect the U.S. and defeat international terrorism, and Democrats, despite squabbling over the budget, have been inclined to support him.
Homeland security director Tom Ridge has expanded the government's efforts to avert attacks and better prepare for an attack on U.S. soil, but much of that work is invisible to Americans. He has issued three general terror alerts, with no specifics and simultaneous urgings that citizens carry on normal routines.
Wednesday, Ridge told about 300 mayors, in town for the annual winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, that police, firefighters and emergency crews deserve greater resources because "for them, the potential of a new challenge, a new battle is with them every, single day."
"We want to empower cities and states to build upon their first-response capability, and then we want to help you sustain it in the future," he said.
Ridge promised more money for research and for enhancing hospitals' abilities to respond to a bioterror emergency.
Some two billion dollars of the money would help state and local agencies buy equipment for responding to a terror attack, and about $1.1 billion would go to training personnel to respond to chemical and biological attacks.
Bush would set aside $245 million for programs for exercises designed to improve response capabilities.
The increase in domestic security funding comes as Bush's proposed budget projects a deficit of $106 billion, following four straight years of federal surpluses. The president is also proposing the biggest increase in military spending in 20 years.
"Part of the president's priorities are to protect the country by providing the defense of the United States, to protect the homeland," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "The president believes that the single most thing that our country or our government can do to help the economy grow is to prevent another terrorist attack."
Homeland security spending will also pay for stockpiling and distribution of medicine, and border and port security, said Fleischer and homeland security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
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