Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday said that the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to various homeland security grant programs and are not supported by state and local law enforcers and first responders.
Pointing to recent events in Britain where terrorists successfully carried out various attacks against people in open areas, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), ranking member on the panel, highlighted proposed cuts to mobile security teams deployed by the Transportation Security Administration and to critical grant programs that support local law enforcers who are part of the prevention and response efforts to such attacks in the United States.
“I’m concerned that the president’s budget plans to cut critical TSA programs at a time when we cannot afford to let up on these security measures,” McCaskill said in her opening remarks.
The FY ’18 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security would also cut funding for the Urban Area Security Initiative, which are grants used by states and localities to help with their counter-terrorism efforts. McCaskill said these grants have been a “lifeline” to localities “because they have so many soft targets, because of the large populations.”
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said that the grant programs have been in place since the Sept. 2001 terrorist attacks and have largely served their purpose in preparing and helping states and localities be ready to help in the fight against terrorism in the homeland. He said the states and localities are ready to sustain these efforts with less financial help from the federal government.
“We are as a nation in a different place entirely—from a law enforcement to the local protection point of view—we are in a different place today than we were 15 years ago when 9/11 first took place,” Kelly said in responding to a question by McCaskill about the proposed TSA and grant cuts. “Whether it’s New York City, the largest non-federal law enforcement organization in the country…or small towns and counties with very few professionals, this kind of thinking, anti-terrorism, counter-terrorism, is in the DNA.”
DHS is seeking $2.1 billion in various grants and federal assistance for states and localities to help in their counter-terrorism, a $959 million reduction from FY ’17 levels. The grants help states and localities buy equipment, conduct training, and in some cases provide reimbursements for complementing security provided by federal and other officials at venues such as airports.
Following a report in The Intercept this week based on a leaked intelligence community document that Russian military intelligence attempted to hack some selection systems in the U.S., Kelly said that DHS is part of investigations into this matter.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, in one of his last acts at the end of the Obama Administration, designated U.S. election systems as critical infrastructure. Election systems in the U.S. are run and managed by states and localities. Kelly said he has had “a large amount of push-back from the states and many members of Congress” about this, noting though that states’ outreach to DHS for help securing their voting infrastructures is voluntary.
McCaskill said it is “clear” that the Russian hackers were trying to get into voter files, with a goal of disturbing elections last November.
Kelly said he shares his “concern” with McCaskill about the “sanctity of our voting process.” He added that he is meeting with state homeland security officials next week and will ask them if DHS should back off on the designation of election systems as critical infrastructure.
“I don’t think we should,” Kelly said, adding he want to know if the states view DHS as partners that can provide help protecting their systems.