Orlando won’t get terror funding

Officials ‘baffled’ as city left off list again

Nearly a year after the Pulse nightclub shootings, Orlando is once again being left off the list of U.S. cities receiving anti-terrorism funding from the federal government.

The Department of Homeland Security released its 2017 grant allocations Friday, and despite an estimated $580 million in grants awarded to U.S. cities this year, the Orlando area did not make the cut.

It was ranked 38th in the nation based on a 2016 formula used to rate the risk of terrorism in urban areas, according to U.S Rep. Stephanie Murphy’s office.

The top 33 cities and urban areas received funding, including $5.3 million for Miami/Fort Lauderdale and $2.8 million for Tampa Bay.

The last few cities to make the list include Indianapolis, San Antonio, Salt Lake City and Norfolk, Va., which received $1 million each in grants.

Orlando received $1 million in funding in 2014, but ever since it has been denied Federal

“We are baffled to learn that once again, the Orlando area has been left out of the Urban Area Security Initiative.” U.S. Rep. Val Demings, D-Orlando

Emergency Management Agency grants through the Urban Area Security Initiative.

FEMA said last year the assessment is based on “relative threat, vulnerability, and consequence factors from acts of terrorism faced by each [urban area],” as well as “targeted infrastructure that terrorists are deemed more likely to attack” and border crossings.

“If the occurrence of a terrorist attack in a recent year, and a city's ranking as the number one destination for international tourism do not result in funding, then the formula is completely and

unconscionably broken beyond repair,” said U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Orlando.

U.S. Rep. Val Demings, DOrlando, said Central Florida law enforcement groups had urged Congress to add Orlando to the 2016 list even before the June 12 shootings at Pulse by Omar Mateen, who killed 49 and wounded dozens more.

“We are baffled to learn that once again, the Orlando area has been left out of the Urban Area Security Initiative,” Demings said in a statement. “I will continue to urge Congress to expand the list of cities included and work to ensure that we have the proper funds to prepare and respond to terrorism in Central Florida.”

Murphy, D-Winter Park, said in a statement she is working with both Democrats and Republicans to increase funding for the program for fiscal 2018 from about $580 million to $700 million.

Murphy said the government needs to “change the funding allocation formula so that mid-sized cities like Orlando – which do face meaningful terrorism threats – receive the funding they deserve.”

In 2016, then-U.S. Rep. John Mica said the “incredible, total miscalculation of the threat risk from a terrorist attack” to Orlando as “one of the worst security miscalculations since 9-11”, and both U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson urged Congress and the Department of Homeland Security to reevaluate its methods.

But the audit they requested

of how FEMA distributes grants has not yet started, according to the Government Accounting Office.

Rubio and Nelson did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

Orlando Police Chief John Mina said he and Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings went to Washington, D.C., less than one month after Pulse “to implore Congress to reassess the formula used to decide which communities deserve funding. I said then, and continue to believe, that our region — which draws more than 68 million visitors a year — remains a target for such attacks.”

Mina said in a statement he was “extremely disappointed” Orlando was again left off the list.

“Fortunately, the Orlando Police Department has the support of Mayor Buddy Dyer and city commissioners, who are relentlessly committed to public safety and ensure that we have the equipment and training to protect our residents and visitors,” Mina said.

Orlando officials asking for funds in 2016 said any grants awarded would have been used for training, equipment, emergency management and operations, as well as a proposed Central Florida Intelligence Exchange made up of local and federal law enforcement.