Cost of security quickly mounts

Associated Press and the los angeles times

WASHINGTON — After an initial burst of federal aid, the Bush administration and some lawmakers are considering tapping the brakes on taxpayer assistance to groups seeking help after the terrorist attacks.

From hotel companies to urban water systems, scores of trade associations and state and local governments are pleading for aid. While no one has an authoritative tally, congressional aides estimate that the requests total tens of billions of dollars, probably more than $100 billion.

On Sunday, Health and Human Services chief Tommy Thompson said he would ask Congress for more than $1.5 billion to take steps to counter bioterrorism threats.

Defense of the homeland could cost $1.5 trillion over the next five years, according to one estimate circulating on Capitol Hill.

"You name the industry and it’s been coming by" for help, said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

Lawmakers concede that the sheer size of the task leaves them awestruck. More monumental than the effort to prevent a Y2K computer meltdown at the turn of the 21st century, the new danger could pose shearing dilemmas for lawmakers, particularly officials on the local level who may find themselves having to choose between school textbooks and firefighter gas masks.

Government agencies and industry groups are seeking money for a wide range of security measures, from high-tech biometric systems that would identify port workers with access to secure areas using such techniques as retinal scans, to the decidedly low tech, such as additional bomb-sniffing dogs at Amtrak stations.

Congress has approved $40 billion to repair the Sept. 11 damage and bolster domestic security and the military. Federal agencies have proposed more than $120 billion in "helpful suggestions" to spend it, White House budget director Mitchell Daniels said last week.

"The bucket was full. It can take a few leaks," Daniels said, referring to robust federal surpluses that had been projected until recently. "It can’t take the bottom dropping out, however."

No one knows what the final federal total will be, but the requests have begun causing concern among lawmakers from both parties. They realize that what in August looked like a $176 billion surplus for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1 is now all but certain to end up as a deficit in the tens of billions.

"There’s no lack of sympathy here," said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls one-third of the $2 trillion federal budget. "We can only say we’ll do the best we can with the limited resources the federal government has."

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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