Porkbarrelling Homeland Security

That's what this list is, pure and simple. It's padded with locations and businesses with the intent of making sure that the locale obtains more homeland security funding.

The database “is not an accurate representation of the nations CI/KR (critical infrastructure and key resources),” inspectors concluded. Additionally, the database “is not yet comprehensive enough to support the management and resource allocation decision-making envisioned by the National Infrastructure Protection Plan.”

The report noted that Indiana has 8,591 assets listen in the database — more than any other state and 50 percent more than New York. New York had 5,687 listed. It did not detail which ones, but the Homeland Security assessment of New York this year failed to include Times Square, the Empire State Building the Brooklyn Bridge or the Statue of Liberty as a national icon or monument.

As to Times Square, Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty, the explanation given that these structures and locations were not needed national icons of monumnents is that they were listed under different categories that would provide a higher level of aid than if listed as national icons or monuments. That would be a fair assessment - to make sure that those locations receive the highest level of compensation.

That any such list doesn't contain questionable locations is not surprising. That any such list puts Indiana ahead of New York or California by about 50% is surprising. Someone in Indiana was clearly on the ball and made sure to list every possible business and event he or she could think of that might pose as a terror target.

The homeland security funding formula was created by Congress, and revised by Congress because big cities like New York, Boston and Washington, DC were not receiving what was perceived to be their proper share. Risk assessment formulas were rewritten in the process. Now, we see that the process was apparently gamed by some states, which means that counter terror funding/preparedness funding was skewed as a result.

What does this mean from a practical standpoint? Well, it might mean that New York, California and other stats with high profile targets might pad their own lists going forward knowing that the DHS funding will not necessarily find problems until after the program is funded. Heck, New York City could individually list blocks or buildings in Lower Manhattan - from the WFC to the Battery. All were targets or potential targets going back as far as 1993, when Islamic terrorists sought to topple the WTC onto neighboring buildings - it wasn't enough for the terrorists to want to destroy and collapse the WTC, they wanted to bring it down on the surrounding neighborhood.

The ongoing problems with homeland security funding shows that Congress is not doing enough to provide proper oversight of the program, choosing to throw money at problems rather than see how effective the programs are.