[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 7, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1710-S1711]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. BOXER:
  S. 510. A bill to specify that the 100 most populous urban areas of 
the United States, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security, 
shall be eligible for grants under the Urban Area Security Initiative 
of the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the ``Urban Area 
Security Initiative Improvement Act,'' which addresses eligibility for 
the Department of Homeland Security's Urban Area Security Initiative 
(UASI) grant program.
  This bill will improve the existing grant award process by broadening 
the number of urban areas eligible to apply. In Fiscal Year 06, the 
Department of Homeland Security made arbitrary decisions about areas' 
need for homeland security funding, threatening the eligibility of 
eleven worthy areas to apply for future grants.
  The eligibility of Sacramento and San Diego, in my State of 
California, were threatened in this way. Sacramento is the capital of 
the most populous State in the Nation and home to

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dozens of critical Federal and State government buildings. In addition, 
much of the State's water, electricity, and telecommunication systems 
are managed from Sacramento. The San Diego area contains the Nation's 
seventh-largest city adjacent to a heavily trafficked international 
border, a busy port, tourist attractions, and major military 
installations.
  My bill would ensure that the 100 most populous urban areas of the 
country are eligible to apply for UASI grants each year. The Department 
of Homeland Security would then have the discretion to award funds to 
as many applicants as it deems worthy and needy.
  The bill would also require that the Department employ a 
``sensitivity analysis'' in its grant process, to deal with uncertainty 
in the mathematical models that it uses to evaluate the risk of 
terrorism for urban areas. The Department's leadership could make 
better-informed policy decisions if it used a sensitivity analysis to 
better understand the effects of policy judgments in estimating risk 
each year.
  I urge my colleagues to consider and pass this bill, with its 
important implications for making our Nation more secure against 
terrorism.
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