By Ed Somers
February 3, 2003

"We must acknowledge the undue burdens that have been placed upon cities since September 11," Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) said in her January 23 remarks reaffirming her fight for direct homeland security funding for cities.

"Working with this Conference, we did what we could do last year, which was to put forward legislation that would provide funding directly to cities. So far we have not been successful, and for the life of me I do not understand why," Sen. Clinton added. The Senator has reintroduced her Homeland Security Block Grant (S. 87) which currently has seven co'sponsors.

Senator Clinton said that cities are the obvious target for terrorist attacks as seen on September 11 and in recent intelligence reports. She also discussed a study she released on January 24 which shows that cities in New York State have received very little new homeland security funding.

Senator Clinton stressed that she is not tied to her formula for first responder assistance, and will work with others as long as the funding gets directly to cities.

Senator Clinton also expressed concern regarding unfunded mandates such as Medicaid, the Leave No Child Behind Act, and 30 years of underfunded special education mandates, which she called "bipartisan unkept promises" made worse by current budgetary shortfalls at the state and local levels. She said she will fight for some kind of general fiscal assistance for states and cities.