SAEDNEWS: The Trump administration said it would cut terrorism prevention funding for New York City, according to a grant notice posted days after a gunman killed four people inside a Manhattan skyscraper.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a grant notice, opens new tab posted on Friday that New York City would receive $64 million less this year from its urban area security fund.
The US Congress created the program to help cities prevent terrorist and other violent attacks.
Manhattan has been the site of two attacks on high-profile corporate executives in the last year. The most recent attack occurred in late July when a gunman armed with an assault-style rifle killed four people inside an office building that houses the headquarters of the NFL and several major financial firms.
“It makes absolutely no sense, and no justification has been given to cut NY’s allocation given the rise in the threat environment,” a spokesperson for the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday defended the move, saying New York City had not spent all of its counter-terrorism money from previous years.
Reuters could not independently verify that assertion.
Governor Kathy Hochul highlighted the latest attack in a letter, opens new tab to Noem in July that asked why the Trump administration had not announced the amounts each city would receive from the program this year. DHS is the parent agency of FEMA.
The agency uses “an analysis of relative risk of terrorism” to decide how much money each city will receive, according to the grant notice posted on Friday. The agency may change the amounts later, according to the notice.
In 2023, the agency considered city visitor counts, population density and proximity to international borders, among other factors, to determine the totals, according to a report signed by then-FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.
FEMA has been decreasing terrorism prevention money for New York City each year since at least fiscal year 2022. The drop is much more drastic this year at 41% year-over-year.
The New York City Police Department has used the funding in the past to pay for the Domain Awareness System, a network of cameras, license plate readers and detection devices, according to a 2016 statement, opens new tab from former Mayor Bill de Blasio's office.
