2. Homeland Security funds - Laserfiche WebLink

Mayor Anthony Williams on down were only able to get in touch with each other by typing e-mails or punching in text messages. In the aftermath of that crisis, district offi- cials sat down to figure out what to do to improve their communications, to make sure they could talk rather than type dur- ing any future emergencies. What they came up with is on the belt: a battalion of communication devices and phone ser- vices. "Our strategy," Peck says, "is to give as many opportunities for alternate routing as possible." The District of Columbia is not alone in grappling with shortcomings in inter. agency and inter-jurisdictional communi- cations. With the heightened anxiety over terrorist threats, almost all state and local governments are struggling to attain an acceptable level of "homeland security." The daunting problems they face in get- ting there start with an inadequate defin- ition of exactly what comprises homeland security and go on to an even more inad- equate means of funding to get wherever it is they are supposed to go. Even within this imprecise and discomforting situation, however, there is evidence that, when it comes to their technology, a handful of governments are inching closer to build- ing up an adequate security system. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? No one is quite sure how to spell out exactly what homeland security is. The federal definition is lofty, all-encompass- ing and discouragingly vague: "A con- certed national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur." That doesn't offer much in the way of a blueprint for action. Nor does it suggest what does or does not fall within its boundaries. "There's hardly anything in the world that isn't affected by homeland security issues," says Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Com- munications and Technology Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Money is an even bigger problem. Not much federal cash has been passed on to the states and localities to help fund responses-certainly not the $3.5 billion proposed by President Bush last January. New York and Washington, D.C.--the two cities that suffered most directly from 9/Il--received some money early on. More recently, those two cities and five May 2003 GOVERNING 25