Homeland Security Funding Commission

So does the funding for those cities match their needs? Not in the slightest.

On a per capita basis, none do nearly as well as the residents of the great state of Wyoming. And that is the crux of the matter. While on a straight dollar accounting, New York City gets far more than Wyoming, that money has to do far more to protect far more people than the money set aside for Wyoming.

And that's where the politics gets involved. Each state was required to submit detailed plans as to what it required for homeland security funding. Places like New York and California have far more vulnerabilities than some areas of the country, like Wyoming, but the way the funding formulas work, each gets a portion of one particular funding stream in 50 equal parts, which is a bow to politics. Now, there are additional funding streams that get divided up according to actual need, but the problem is that allocation of even a slight portion of homeland security funding on anything other than an actual needs basis does a tremendous disservice to those living in high risk areas and does little to protect the nation as a whole.

Thus, I would propose the creation of a Homeland Security Funding Commission. This Commission would be modeled along the lines of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, which was first established in the 1990s to handle the very sensitive task of closing military facilities around the country. A new round of base closures is expected to be decided in 2005.

The base closure and realignment process (designed to maximize resources available to the DoD and anticipate shifts in needs for the future) is governed by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990, with some modifications.

The process begins with a threat assessment of the future national security environment, followed by the development of a force structure plan and basing requirements to meet these threats. DoD then applies published selection criteria to determine which installations to recommend for realignment and closure. The Secretary of Defense will publish a report containing the realignment and closure recommendations, forwarding supporting documentation to an independent commission appointed by the President, in consultation with congressional leadership. The commission has the authority to change the Department's recommendations if it determines that the Secretary deviated substantially from the force structure plan and/or selection criteria. The Commission will hold

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