No Homeland Security money for Port of Oakland?
September 26, 2006 by SwizStick
Filed under QuickNews, Seafreight
This seems strange: During a time when a multitude of ports around the country have received federal funds from The Department of Homeland Security to improve security, the Port of Oakland has received……nothing:
The Department of Homeland Security said yesterday that ports in Oakland and San Francisco would get no funds from a 400 (m) million dollar transportation grant program.
The Port of Oakland had asked for six (m) million dollars. San Francisco had asked for one-point-five (m) million.
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A spokeswoman for the Homeland Security department said she did not know why Oakland or San Francisco were skipped over.
A number of ports – many of them handling far less volume than the Port of Oakland – have been awarded funds from The Department of Homeland Security:
Alabama State Port Authority – $260,217
San Diego Unified Port District Harbor Police Department (say that 10 times fast) – $139,837
Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Department – $4.6 million to Los Angeles, $7.4 million to Long Beach
Port of Charleston – $8.7 million
Port of Olympia – $327,000
Ports of Seattle/Tacoma – $5.17 million to Seattle, $2.11 million to Tacoma
Port of Albany – $624,000
Port Manatee – $37,890
Port of New London – $637,500
Port of New York/New Jersey – $26 million
Ports of Paulsboro and Camden – $2.5 million total for both
Port of Hampton Roads – $3.5 million
Ports of Greater Baton Rouge, South Louisiana, Lake Charles, and New Orleans – $26 million total for all 4 ports
This is just a partial list, but you get the general idea. Some of these ports are well deserving of the money, such as the ports in Louisiana and high volume/high risk ports such as New York/New Jersey and Seattle-Tacoma, but it is quite puzzling when the nation’s fourth-busiest seaport gets nothing.
The Port of Oakland got stiffed and nobody seems to know why. Needless to say, officials in California are pretty steamed:
“We’re very disappointed,” said Marilyn Sandifur, a spokeswoman for Oakland’s port. “We’ll be taking a look at the basis for how the decisions were made.”
Other California ports also got less than they hoped for. Los Angeles and Long Beach, which received $24.2 million combined last year, got half that this year.
The funding decision prompted a blast at the Bush administration by the state’s Republican governor.
“It is unacceptable that the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland — among the busiest ports in the nation — were shortchanged by the federal government’s homeland security grants,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said. “Congress must pass legislation this year that will require the Department of Homeland Security to allocate funds based on risk and need. Almost half of all the nation’s goods arriving by sea go through California’s ports. Clearly, the current allocation of grant funds does not address our state’s need.”
I’m not sure legislation is the answer, but someone needs to take a close look at how The Department of Homeland Security decided who gets money and how much. It’s revealing that a spokeswoman for Homeland Security said she had no idea why Oakland received no funds. They better have a good explanation and it would be very interesting to see the process for determining who received money and how much.
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