Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2012

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Mr. TONKO. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment offered by my colleague regarding the Urban Area Security Initiative.

As New Yorkers, we know firsthand the absolutely critical role that our State and local police and firefighters play in preventing and responding to attacks on the American homeland. The Urban Area Security Initiative, or UASI, administered by the Department of Homeland Security, is a program focused on enhancing regional preparedness in high-risk areas by fostering better communication and collaboration amongst local fire responders. Given the struggles we have faced since the crisis on Wall Street, these are communities that increasingly cannot afford to provide their citizens--our citizens--with the same level of protection that UASI enables.

This bill, as written, arbitrarily restricts UASI to allow only 10 urban areas to be eligible for the program, and its funding, down from more than 60 in previous years. No one here today would argue that Manhattan and Los Angeles are undeserving of priority assistance. However, with this arbitrary cap, we will endanger the progress that many other high-risk urban areas have made to protect our citizens from attacks and crises. We will threaten the ability of these communities--including my community in upstate New York--to safeguard our citizens.

We are making these cuts at home while we pay hundreds of billions of dollars each year for our military-industrial complex to fight an incredibly expensive war in Afghanistan with the aim of preventing terror attacks in America. We are going to spend more than $12 billion this year to build up Afghan security forces while our own security forces in Albany and the Capital Region and 50 other cities across America are stripped of their funding under UASI. Is our strategic thinking that backwards, or is it just more lucrative to build a multibillion-dollar army halfway around the world than to help our police and firefighters here at home protect and defend our constituents?

I would propose to take $1 billion of that $12 billion and put it back into a deserving and necessary program like UASI, but according to the rules set by the Republican leadership, that is not allowed. So I stand here today in support of this amendment and in support of New York.

In my home district in upstate New York, the Albany Urban Area Working Group has used UASI grants to make great strides forward in boosting local cooperation and collaborative planning. This group unites participants from Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, and Schoharie Counties around a common goal of protecting a region critical to the security of New York State and the stability of America.

From building a truly interoperable regional communications network to securing the Capital Region's critical infrastructure, the work of this group is absolutely vital to protecting the Empire State. Whether threatened by natural or manmade disasters, it is clear that New York is and should be at the top of our priority list to protect.

I represent New York's Capital Region, an area that bears tremendous economic and symbolic importance. Thirty-five million people live within a 200-mile radius of our State capital in Albany. Albany also houses New York's most vital State government facilities and more than 11,000 State government employees that keep the Empire State up and running. These functions are vital not only to our area, but also to our fellow New Yorkers downstate and across our State, and to Americans across this country who do business in, with, and through New York.

The Capital Region is also home to the third-fastest-growing hub for science and technology jobs in our Nation. That projected clustering, alongside high-profile research and development centers in our Tech Valley corridor, add to the vital importance of this region to an American economy that needs more leaders in innovation.

In Albany, we host the world-renowned Nanotechnology Research Center where 250 industry leaders partner with the United States Army to push us past the current bounds of science. In Schenectady, we host GE's renewable energy global headquarters. In Schoharie, our reservoir provides a significant portion of New York City's water supply. In Watervliet, we have a one-of-a-kind Army arsenal. And just a few miles away we host an atomic power laboratory doing world class R&D for the United States Naval Nuclear Propulsion program. Nearby in Malta is a facility that will soon be the most advanced chip fabrication plant in the world. The hometown heroes who protect all of these facilities and more will lose their funding through UASI entirely if this bill passes in its current form.

And so in support of New York's Capital Region and similar areas across this country, I stand in support of this amendment, this amendment that will remove an arbitrary 10-city restriction on the UASI program from this bill, this amendment, that will not add $1 to the debt or deficit, this amendment that will not cost us one single dollar but rather will provide us a commonsense approach.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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