Schumer: Senate Bill A Major Victory for New York and Acknowledges Risk Faced by New York City

Press Release

United States Senator Charles E. Schumer announced today that after a major push to ensure that New York's allocation of Homeland Security funding appropriately reflected the level of threat faced by the City, the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Committee is estimated to provide New York with an additional $47 million dollars in vital anti-terror funding over last year's funding level -- a net increase of 31%. In total, under the Senate bill, based on previous year allocations, New York could receive $199,200,000 in Urban Areas Security Initiative funding (UASI), a net increase of $47,620,904 million over $151,579,000 in FY2012. The UASI program is the lifeblood of New York's anti-terror programs and funds the critical anti-terror surveillance program for downtown Manhattan and its expansion into Times Square and midtown.

"We continue to make the case that anti-terror funding should be directly linked to the actual threat posed, and this appropriations bill makes clear, as the prime target for would-be terrorists, New York City deserves the lion's share," said Schumer. "I want to thank my colleagues in the Senate for doing right by their fellow Americans in New York and ensuring that the NYPD has everything it needs to continue protecting our great city."

The Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Committee budgeted a total of $664,000,000 for the UASI program, a net increase of $173.6 million over FY2012 budget levels. Schumer was able to secure a significant increase in New York's total share of UASI funding in 2012, from 21% of the total pot to 30%. Under the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, New York total share of the funding pot remains strong at 30% for FY2013.

Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), which funds the Lower Manhattan and Midtown Security Initiative, is a program to increase surveillance efforts in Lower Manhattan and the Midtown section of New York City. The New York City Police Department plans to install over 3,000 security cameras in lower and midtown Manhattan, as well as 100 license plate-reading devices which are intended to scan plates and compare the numbers with information in a database. Additionally, the activities the cameras are programmed to pick up include the delivery of packages, unattended bags left for extended periods of time, or a suspicious car repeatedly circling the same block. Other features of the system include mobile roadblocks and radiation detectors.

Source