Washington, DC:  Rep. Edward J. Markey, a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee, released the following statement today regarding the allocation of $1.67 billion in homeland security grant funds to states and areas of the country considered “high-risk” for terrorist attack:

“While I  am pleased to report that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will receive over $41 million in new homeland security grants announced today by the Department of Homeland Security, I am disturbed that budget cuts requested by President Bush and enacted by the Republican Congress have resulted in a 33% reduction in funds made available to these grant programs both nation-wide and, consequently, to Massachusetts’ share.  Last year, I voted against the Homeland Security Appropriations bill Conference Report in part because of these ill-advised cuts to important homeland security programs.

Included within the state’s allocation is $18.2 million under the Urban Areas Security Initiative for Boston, which is one of 46 major urban areas considered “high-risk” for terrorism.  In addition, Massachusetts will receive approximately $11.7 million from the State Homeland Security Program, $10.2 million from the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program, $697 thousand from the Metropolitan Medical Response System and $389 thousand from the Citizen Corps Program. This funding will be needed by our fire, police and emergency medical technicians to cope with terrorist threats as varied as a dirty bomb on a container ship or the intentional release of a synthetic avian flu virus.

For more information on Rep. Markey’s work on homeland security, please visit: http://markey.house.gov.