Democrats: States bearing brunt of U.S. security costs
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Washington is talking tough but leaving states and local governments to pay the bill for the increased demands of homeland security, California's Gov. Gray Davis said Saturday.
The federal government has paid only a tiny fraction of the $3.5 billion promised by President Bush last year for police, firefighters and others at the front lines in any terror attack, Davis said in the weekly Democratic radio address.
California is now spending $500 million a year on homeland security, he said. For example, during the recent upgrade to level "orange" in the national alert system against possible attacks, just the deployment of the California Highway Patrol cost more than $1 million, he said.
"For all the tough talk coming out of Washington these days, this administration and the Republican leadership in Congress have thus far stuck us with the bill," Davis said.
He said it was time for the federal government to match its rhetoric with resources. The nation's police, firefighters and other "first responders" had answered the call of duty without question, "but they should not have to do it without compensation," he said.
Last month Davis and other governors took their case to Washington, charging Bush and Congress with short-changing homeland security at the states' expense.
Bush blamed the Republican-led Congress for not including enough money in a 2003 federal spending bill for first responders. But he also promised to work with Congress to free up more money to help train police and firefighters to prepare for and respond to potential terrorist attacks.
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