KC seeks new homeland security funds, but McCaskill is not optimistic

[alp227]

Source: Kansas City Star

Kansas City emergency responders who spend their lives preparing for man-made and natural disasters are now mobilizing against a different kind of threat.

They fear the permanent loss of federal funds to keep ahead of terrorist attacks and other risks. Thirteen years after the Sept. 11 attacks, and after the federal government has poured billions of dollars into homeland security across the country, the federal investment in metropolitan areas like Kansas City may be drying up.

In fact, Kansas City already has missed out on funding this year, and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill was not optimistic about getting it restored.

McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, addressed that predicament at a recent meeting where Kansas City Councilman John Sharp asked for help in getting the funding renewed for Kansas City and similar metro areas that have dropped off the list of communities considered at greatest risk.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/10/4813750/kc-seeks-new-homeland-security.html

[Divernan]

1. Worth a read also re urban area funding nationwide:"No city is an island."

And the request for enough to maintain emergency equipment/training levels is I think both reasonable and modest.
On edit: John Donne wrote:
'No Man is an Island'

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Similarly, no city or state is an island.
Keep in mind that traditionally, emergency response teams and equipment are readily volunteered from all around the country in the event of major catastrophes. The article reports that funding is being cut back to only the 25 largest urban areas, with the possibility of cutting back to even a smaller number. Those decision makers at the federal level should take a somber and respectful look back to 9/11, and the brave and dedicated first responders who came to the assistance of NYC from around the country. One of my kids is an emergency responder. She has traveled out of her home state to NYC, to the Pentagon site on 9/11, to Kansas for tornado work, to Florida & Houston for Katrina response