Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a frequent critic of wasteful government spending, has issued a new report that questions homeland security-grant administration and spending to secure cities.
"Safety at Any Price: Assessing the Impact of Homeland Security Spending in US Cities," looks at DHS grant programs and the Urban Areas Security Initiative.
According to Coburn, $35 billion has passed through DHS grant programs since 2003, but the department has yet to establish goals or metrics to ensure that funds were used properly and it cannot measure whether we are safer because of it – beyond the negative measure of the absence of another significant terrorist attack.
"Congress has a duty to ensure that this grant program does not become a parochial, pork-barrel entitlement program," Coburn said, citing expenditures that include sending first-responders to a counterterrorism summit at a resort spa featuring a simulated zombie apocalypse, and an underwater robot purchased by Columbus, Ohio for about $100,000 under emergency procedures because the grant deadline was running out for those funds.
The report also calls out officials for using $90,000 to install bollards and a video surveillance system at a Peoria, Ariz. sports complex where the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres baseball teams hold spring training, and is critical of the town of Keane, N.H. for purchasing an expensive tank-like vehicle to ostensibly protect its annual pumpkin festival.