The Department of Homeland Security, through the Office of Domestic Preparedness, will distribute $100 million in funding to large urban areas. The money, dispersed under the Urban Area Security Initiative, will help enhance the local governments' ability to prepare for and respond to threats or incidents of terrorism.
The funds are in addition to the $566 million that the Office for Domestic Preparedness announced last month from the FY'03 Funding for first responder needs such as equipment, training, planning and exercises. The cities were chosen by applying a formula based upon a combination of factors including population density, critical infrastructure and threat/vulnerability assessment.
The areas chosen for the funding were: New York City ($24.7 million), Washington, D.C.(18.08 million), Los Angeles ($12.42 million), Seattle ($11.2 million), Chicago ($10.89 million), San Francisco ($10.74 million), and Houston ($8.63 million).
DHS has come under fire from areas denied allotments. ''I find it remarkable that Boston was not on the list," Senator Edward Kennedy told The Boston Globe.
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