DHS Giving $2.1B in ‘Preparedness Grants’ to Cities, Indian Tribes, Non-Profits

Don’t you just love these grants? Yet funds are being slashed for the Coast Guard to patrol our Borders. Better yet, have them tasked with working on “Global Warming”. I went through a couple of posts last year to point out the deft skill Janet has displayed in making security decisions. Better to give out money. Actually, it is the only skill set this Administration really has.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Wednesday announced that her department has allocated more than $2.1 billion to 12 “federal preparedness” grant programs for Fiscal Year 2011.

From 2002 through 2011, more than $32.1 billion has been awarded in preparedness grants to help strengthen and protect the homeland. CNS News

Here we go in our “Way Back” machine:

The Obama administration will announce today it has slashed anti-terror funds for New York City, despite the attempted Times Square bombing less than two weeks ago that underscored the enormous threat to the city.Read more: More at New York Post

Meanwhile: Obama guts Homeland Security- mainly NYC

Big Sis- Cutting the Coast Guards elite team that patrols our ports.

At a recent hearing, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), ranking member on the committee, said she was shocked that the Obama administration’s budget for the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2011 cuts funding for the U.S. Coast Guard while asking for $200 million for security for the Sheikh Mohammed trial.

 When asked by ranking minority leader Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) why the DHS budget spends money on securing the trials of terrorists in the U.S. while cutting funding for U.S. Coast Guard, Napolitano defended the Obama administration’s stance on the matter.

Collins said “Decommissioning part of the Coast Guard’s 13^th elite maritime security safety teams that protect waterfront cities makes absolutely no sense given the threats to our ports,” Check Out: Coast Guard wants to slash homland Security

In the memo, Papp said he wants to eliminate teams that are trained to respond to and prevent terror attacks. These teams also train other Coast Guard forces on counterterrorism operations.

“In view of the fiscal horizon, we must make bold and systematic strategic decisions,” Papp wrote in the memo, dated Nov. 10, 2009. Obama.

The memo, marked “sensitive — for internal Coast Guard use only,” was obtained by The Associated Press.

He also calls for cuts to the Coast Guard’s largest homeland security operation, which patrols critical infrastructure and other sensitive security structures on or near waterways. And he would decrease the number of specialized units stationed in key coastal areas where an attack could be devastating.

Obama has already proposed closing five of the 12 specialized units in 2011.

Papp’s outline is significant because it could mean major changes for the more than 200-year-old agency that took on substantial homeland security duties after Sept. 11, 2001. Obama’s 2011 proposed budget cuts for the Coast Guard have already caused outrage from some lawmakers. News Max

DHS strips Coast Guard of Border Security, but will now do Global Warming

“She is creating a new department under Homeland Security called the Climate Change and Adaptation Task Force, which will be tasked with “identifying and assessing the impact that climate change could have on the missions and operations of the Department of Homeland Security.”

Janet Napalitano: “Many USCG [Coast Guard] and Customs and Border Protection facilities, by their mission, are located in the coastal zone which will be adversely impacted by sea level rise.  Costs will increase for protecting existing facilities from the impacts of sea level rise and some facilities might have to be abandoned in the longer term.” What assistance can the Coast Guard bring to bear to assist remote villages in, for example, Alaska which already have been negatively affected by changes up in the Arctic?” CNS News