The Department of Homeland Security ranked the District last behind every single state for risk from terrorist attack or disaster.
Even the U.S. territory Puerto Rico was ranked as a greater risk than the nation’s capital.
“That’s just mind-boggling. I don’t think any person, including the terrorists would agree with that,” said Edward Reiskin, Washington’s deputy mayor for public safety.
TheDHS announced that it would slash its grants to Washington and New York City this year by 40 percent, causing an uproar in the two cities that were the targets of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The New York tabloids have savaged DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., announced, “As far as I’m concerned, the Department of Homeland Security and the administration have declared war on New York.”
The Washington metro area’s congressional delegation sent a letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff Friday asking him to explain the cuts.
“The administration targeted almost every dime of their cuts to the only areas actually attacked on 9/11,” wrote Congressman Jim Moran, D-Va..
In DHS’s state grant program, only Guam, the Virgin Islands, the American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands were allocated less money than the District.
The ranking cost Washington millions of dollars. Washington was awarded about $4.27 million, down from $9 million last year.
Montana, Maine and Oregon all received more money than D.C., a target of the last attack by terrorists.
Though the District was ranked at the bottom of states and territories, the D.C. region was in the top 25 percent for urban areas, said Jarrod Agen, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.
Overall, the National Capitol Region receiving the fourth most money behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The DHS considered size in population and land mass, critical infrastructure like water sources and other vulnerable areas, he said.
