Senators to ask for additional $1.7 billion for critical infrastructure protection

Senior members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee say that DHS’s proposed FY 2007 budget of $42.7 billion is too low and is misdirected in some areas. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), the committee chairwoman, told DHS secretary Michael Chertoff during a hearing that she was concerned the budget did not provide enough money for the Coast Guard or for grants to state and local governments. The committee’s ranking member, Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Connecticut), called the budget “shortsighted and shortfunded, given the dangers — both natural and terrorist — that this department was created to confront.” Lieberman said he would send a letter to Senator Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, to request an additional $8 billion in homeland security funding. The request will seek an additional $1.7 billion for critical infrastructure, $1.2 billion for first responder grants, $465 million for FEMA, $1.1 billion for the Coast Guard, $158 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and $752 million for aviation security.

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