U.S. Representative Darren Soto (D-FL) made the following statement based on press reports that Orlando has been denied funding under the Urban Area Security Initiative federal grant program:
"Working with my Central Florida colleagues, I will follow up with the administration to forcefully argue that the current funding formula is dead wrong. If the occurrence of a terrorist attack in a recent year, and a city's ranking as the #1 destination for international tourism do not result in funding, then the formula is completely and unconscionably broken beyond repair. The Trump Administration needs to start over from scratch and run an open, but speedy, consultative process with Congress and America's mayors, beginning now, to fix this problem going forward".