Baltimore sees less funding than several ports and regions determined to have a similar threat risk, with politicians seeking more support in next year?s budgets.
The Port of Baltimore received $1.9 million in federal security grants in 2007, down from $4.8 million the year before. It also got another $1.8 million in emergency supplemental funds in August.
Baltimore ranked 18th in grants among American ports, according to a Department of Homeland Security breakdown of portsecurity grants for fiscal 2007. The data does not include the supplemental funding.
The port is the nation?s 14th largest port for foreign cargo, according to the office of Sen. Barbara Mikulski.
The Department of Homeland Security divides the nation?s ports into four tiers based on their assessment of the terrorist threat to each, with Baltimore considered a second-tier port. The nation?s eight first-tier ports, such as Los Angeles and New York, split about 60 percent of the $201.2 million grants last year, according to the department.
Among second-tier ports, Baltimore?s $1.9 million in grants ranks 10th. The southern tip of Lake Michigan, a region including Chicago, is first with nearly $7 million in funding, followed by Jacksonville with $5.9 million. Other second-tier cities receiving similar levels of funding include Pittsburgh and Lake Charles, La., with $2.7 million and $2.6 million, respectively.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Baltimore has received $18.5 million for port security, according to the House Homeland Security Committee, including $1.1 million in 2005, $4.8 million in 2006. Over that six-year period, Baltimore ranked sixth among second-tier cities, and 14th overall.
Mikulski, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, called the nation?s port security grant program continually underfunded,” and sought specific criteria for the department?s allocation decisions in a May letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff,
“How will you ensure that our ports are safe with these limited resources,” she wrote. “How can ports implement their security plans, improve infrastructure, and upgrade technology when federal funds are insufficient and inconsistent from year to year?”
More money for Baltimore?s port security is in the works. The Senate?s Homeland Security appropriations bill passed in committee in July with a $190 million increase in port security funds, to $400 million. Mikulski?s office said it was unclear if the bill would reach the Senate floor before Congress? October recess. The House passed its own Homeland Security Appropriations bill earlier this summer, which increased port security funding by the same margin.
Tomorrow, The Examiner looks at how Baltimore?s port security funding has been spent.
