Statement by Former 9/11 Commission Chair Tom Kean and Vice Chair Lee Hamilton on Allocation of Homeland Security Grant Funding

Kean and Hamilton are now co-chairs of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Security Preparedness Group

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Former 9/11 Commission Chair and Vice Chair Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, now co-chairs of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG), released the following joint statement today regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s allocation of FY 2011 homeland security preparedness grants:

“Particularly in times when agency budgets are very tight, taxpayer dollars must be spent in the most cost effective manner.  To ensure that homeland security grant programs are cost effective, the 9/11 Commission recommended that grants be targeted to areas where there are the greatest risks and vulnerabilities.”

The NSPG is the successor to the 9/11 Commission and 9/11 Public Discourse Project. Its purpose is to monitor the implementation of the 9/11 Commission recommendations and report on new national security threats. Last year, the NSPG released a report detailing how the terrorist threat has evolved since the attacks in 2001, Assessing the Terrorist Threat.

The NSPG is composed of a distinguished bipartisan group of experts including former U.S. Secretary of Energy and U.S. Senator E. Spencer Abraham, Peter Bergen, Dr. Stephen Flynn, Dr. John Gannon, Dr. Bruce Hoffman, former Congressman Dave McCurdy, former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge, Frances Townsend, former U.S. Attorney General Richard L. Thornburgh, former Congressman Jim Turner, and former Secretary of Agriculture and BPC Senior Fellow Dan Glickman. Rob Strayer, formerly Deputy Staff Director for Senator Susan Collins on the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is the Director.

About the Bipartisan Policy Center:

In 2007, former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell formed the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) to develop and promote solutions that can attract the public support and political momentum to achieve real progress. Currently, the BPC focuses on issues including health care, energy, national and homeland security, transportation and economic policy. For more information, please visit our website: www.bipartisanpolicy.org.

SOURCE Bipartisan Policy Center

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