Nevada delegation critical of plan that leaves Las Vegas off anti-terrorism list

By Karoun Demirjian

Thursday, June 2, 2011 | 11:40 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Nevada’s House delegation is pushing back against a provision of the homeland security appropriations bill that would prioritize anti-terrorism spending to the 10 cities considered most at risk -- a cutoff that would leave Las Vegas in the cold.

The program in question is called the Urban Area Security Initiative, geared toward helping congested urban areas deal with the unique challenges of counter-terrorism planning and recovery in cities. It was created along with the Department of Homeland security in 2003, in response to the Al-Qaeda attack on New York and the Washington, D.C., area that killed more than 3,000 Americans.

Last year, 31 cities, including Las Vegas, split $662 million in funds, directing that cash toward projects like the Southern Nevada Counter-Terrorism Center, a fusion operation that serves as a communications hub for 18 state agencies to coordinate efforts.

But under the bill, next year only the cities the Department of Homeland Security has ranked as the 10 most at-risk would get to split the funds. Las Vegas, according to local lawmakers, is ranked 17.

The idea, say backers of the change, is to make more of an impact in the most at-risk cities, following the 9-11 Commission’s direction that UASI should “not be a program for general revenue-sharing.”

“The UASI funding is specifically target to those areas, such as New York, that are pointed to by the terrorists,” said Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democrat representing the New York City suburbs who sits on the Homeland Security Appropriations committee. “There are many other sources of funding for these communities ... Nevada is getting over $10 million.

“There seems to be some misunderstanding that the UASI program should cover all the homeland security funding for these states,” Lowey said.

It’s not a truckload of money that comes to Las Vegas under the program: last year, only $5.1 million of UASI funding came to Southern Nevada. But local lawmakers’ point is that it came, and in the new plan, it won’t.

“I understand the need to prioritize dollars and scarce resources, but limiting funding to an arbitrary cap of 10 cities threatens our national preparedness,” said Nevada Rep. Joe Heck, who tried to offer an amendment that would have upped the number of included cities to 25, which failed on a voice vote. He’s also supporting the pending amendment to lift the cap further, that’s been proffered by Rep. Brian Higgins of Buffalo, N.Y., a city that’s also set to lose funding under the program change.

“We have seen that the hospitality and tourism industry has become the soft target of choice since 9/11, with nine attacks against international hotel resorts over the last nine years,” Heck added, outlining the extent of Las Vegas’ tourism industry.

Those hotels and resorts, Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley pointed out, already have hosted some of the most notable terrorists who have infiltrated the United States -- meaning cutting funding to cities like Las Vegas could have horrible consequences locally and elsewhere, he said.

“We know that some of the 9-11 terrorists visited Las Vegas before the horrific attack on our nation,” Berkley said.

“After the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, we also know that terrorists are increasingly focusing their interests on mid-size cities rather than large cities,” Berkley added. “Many of those would now not be receiving federal funding were this provision to become law.”

A vote on the amendment is expected later Thursday.