It takes time to arrange all the kickbacks
$5 Billion in Antiterror Aid Is Reported Stuck in Pipeline
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JOEL BRINKLEY
WASHINGTON, April 27 — More than $5 billion in federal money to help communities brace for terrorist attacks has not yet reached the local authorities and remains stuck in the administrative pipeline, Congressional officials said Tuesday.
That is more than 80 percent of the money approved by Congress to help cities, counties and states since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and efforts to prepare for possible attacks may be lagging as a result, a new Congressional analysis has found.
"The money's sitting there waiting for them," said Representative Christopher Cox, Republican of California, chairman of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, which prepared the assessment. "They can't spend it. Nothing happens."
The Sept. 11 attacks revealed alarming gaps in the ability of local officials to respond to terrorist attacks on major urban areas, and Congress responded with an investment of billions of dollars in grants. The money is intended to help so-called first responders buy chemical and radiological detectors, improve their emergency communication systems, expand training and take a variety of other steps to help deter terrorist attacks and respond to them.
Mr. Cox's committee staff found in its assessment that while the Department of Homeland Security was doing a much better job of speeding along local grants for the vast operation, a huge bottleneck had developed at the state and local level.
Many states have such cumbersome procedures, and their needs are so ill-defined, that it can take months or sometimes years for federal money to reach local police, fire and emergency response teams, the analysis found.
