Trump administration plans $64 million cut to New York City security funding

By Courtney Rozen

WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The Trump administration plans to slash terrorism prevention funding for New York City, according to a grant notice posted just days after a gunman killed four people inside a Manhattan skyscraper.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a grant notice posted on Friday that the United States' largest city would receive $64 million less this year from its urban area security fund.

The U.S. Congress created the program to help cities prevent terrorism and other violent attacks.

Manhattan - site of the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers, the United States' deadliest ever act of terrorism - has been the scene of two attacks on high-profile corporate executives in the last year.

The most recent took place last week when a gunman armed with an assault-style rifle killed four people inside an office building housing the headquarters of the National Football League and several major financial firms.

A spokesperson for Kristi Noem, head of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, defended the move on Tuesday, saying New York City had not spent all of its counter-terrorism money from previous years.

A spokesperson for the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, however, said the state "spent nearly every penny" of funding provided in the previous three grant periods.

Reuters could not independently verify either assertion.

Governor Kathy Hochul pointed to the most recent armed attack in a letter to Noem in which she asked why the Trump administration had not announced the amounts each city would receive from the program this year.

In its grant notice, FEMA said that it uses "an analysis of relative risk of terrorism" to decide how much money each city will receive and may change the amounts later.

In 2023, the agency considered city visitor counts, population density and proximity to international borders, among other factors, to determine the totals, according to a report signed by then-FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.

FEMA has been decreasing terrorism prevention money for New York City each year since at least fiscal year 2022. The drop is much more drastic this year, however, representing a 41% year-on-year decline in funding.

The New York City Police Department has used the funding in the past to pay for the Domain Awareness System, a network of cameras, license plate readers and detection devices, according to a 2016 statement from former Mayor Bill de Blasio's office.