Date: 2007-05-09
Speaker: CORRINE BROWN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Chairman. I rise today to urge my colleagues to support my amendment. This amendment would direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to consider the number of. tourists who have visited an urban area in the 2 years preceding the year the Secretary awards Urban Area Security Initiative Grants. Urban Area Security Initiative Grants are designed to fund activities to prevent. protect against. and respond to terrorist attacks and catastrophic events in designated highthreat. highrisk urban areas. [ 1515 The Department of Homeland Security uses a number of factors to allocate funds and assess risks. including special events. theme parks and population. However. a critical element is missing from their list of factors. Homeland Security has yet to explicitly account for tourists as a risk factor when allocating Urban Area Security Initiative Grants. A recent Congressional Research Service report says due to the potential for mass casualty incidents and economic damage from terrorist attacks. tourist locations are at risk. In addition to the location of tourist destinations. the tourist population could possibly be at risk. too. Heavy tourist areas present a twofold incentive for terrorists: a high probability of a sizeable number of casualties and damage to the economy. A 2005 study by the Rand Corporation found that terrorists have an increased concentration on civilian targets and an ongoing emphasis on economic attacks. Most experts agree the evidence shows that terrorists are seeking to kill as many people as possible. The high number of tourists who are staying at any given time in tourist magnets such as Orlando or Miami significantly increases the potential consequence of an attack in those cities. Congress cannot let terrorists exploit this gap in our grant funding. In addition. the economic danger resulting from a terrorist attack on a tourist location is another incentive. Terrorist attacks depress consumer confidence and spending that hurts businesses. undermines investment and our overall economic condition. Congress must ensure that the Department of Homeland Security considers this incentive for terrorists when distributing Urban Area Security Initiative Grants. In past years. concerns were raised that the Department did not adequately account for the large tourist population in cities such as Las Vegas. Orlando and San Diego when they calculated the risk for our Nations urban areas. In fact. in fiscal year 2006. Las Vegas and San Diego were left off the list of the top 35 cities that were eligible to receive grants under the UASI program. The -Department of Homeland Security has been very secretive regarding how Urban Area Security Initiative Grants are allocated. A recent General Accountability Office report stated. "DHS has not provided us documentation on what analyses were conducted. how they were conducted. how they were used and how they affected the final risk assessment scores. and relative rankings." The Department of Homeland Security has made claims that they consider tourist populations. but the problem is Homeland Security has not been specific regarding risk assessment methods or providing Congress adequate information to prove that they have done so. Although the Department of Homeland Security made administrative changes to the fiscal year 2007 grant process to account for tourist populations. my amendment would clearly codify this change. I urge my colleagues to adopt this amendment. Mr. Chairman. I reserve the balance of my time.