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Five reasons NYC should fear Trump’s cuts on anti-terror funds

March 20, 2017 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and Police Commissioner James O’Neill have blasted President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, which slashes New York City’s anti-terror and disaster mitigation funds by roughly $178 million. These funds pay for coordinated planning exercises like the simulated disaster drill at the Office of Emergency Management in Brooklyn shown above. Photo by Mary Frost
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and Police Commissioner James O’Neill have blasted President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, which slashes New York City’s anti-terror and disaster mitigation funds by roughly $178 million. These funds pay for coordinated planning exercises like the simulated disaster drill at the Office of Emergency Management in Brooklyn shown above. Photo by Mary Frost
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U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and Police Commissioner James O’Neill have both blasted President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, which slashes New York City’s anti-terror and disaster mitigation funds by roughly $178 million.

Nationally, the Trump budget would cut $700 million in anti-terror and disaster funding.

“Cuts like the ones proposed by the Trump budget would not only weaken the security apparatus of this city, but they could turn a weak link into something far more serious,” Schumer said in a statement on Sunday.

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Here are five things to know about programs that could be cut, and why this will make NYC a more dangerous place.

– New York City continues to be the number one target for terrorism in the United States. The city has been the target of 21 terror plots since Sept. 11, 2001, Commissioner O’Neill said in a Daily News op-ed last Thursday.

– In New York City, Homeland Security cuts would hit measures like explosive-sniffing dogs and bomb suits, surveillance cameras, special officers to cover major parades and events, disaster drills and FDNY’s first responder training programs. Nearly all of NYPD’s federal funds would be cut, affecting the Police Department’s ability to stay ahead of terrorists.

– Funds that pay for the heavy-weapons teams that conduct patrols at transit hubs, airports, bridges, subways, waterways and highly visited landmarks‎ would also be slashed. This would leave places like the Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square and Penn Station vulnerable.

– The city spends $100,000 daily to protect Trump Tower. Yet Trump did not include any funds for security there in the budget proposal. With the continued requirements of the NYPD to protect Trump’s building, “federal funds to New York City should be increased, not decreased,” Schumer says.

– Trump’s budget proposal slashes multiple important domestic programs and FEMA funding, but would spend more on defense and a contentious border wall with Mexico.


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