Bloomberg Chastises Congress for Security Funding

ABC News’ Z. Byron Wolf Reports: As Democrats try to implement all (or maybe just most) of the 9-11 recommendations, they (and their Republican colleagues) took a verbal dressing down from Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R-NYC), who testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee this morning.

After ticking off all the things New York City has done to guard against another terror attack, Bloomberg called again for a solely risk-based dispersal of Homeland Security funds. Bloomberg said at the Congress and the White House are spreading homeland security dollars "around the country like peanut butter."

He said that heretofore the government has used "irrational" and "politically-driven formulas" to distribute monies and is reserving judgment on the tweaks to those formulas announced recently by DHS Secretary Chertoff.

"If you want a honey pot for security funding, so be it, but call it what it is. It is not homeland security," charged Bloomberg.

He also pointed out that because New York has more advanced communication systems than most localities, it is no longer eligible for some federal grants, which are targeted at less advanced systems.

He said that for the Congress to pass further homeland security reform without fixing the funding problems would be "the height of foolishness."