Hochul Demands Trump Admin Restore $34 Million in Anti-Terror Funds for the MTA

Tense and unsmiling, Governor Kathy Hochul spoke at a 25-minute MTA press conference on Oct. 9, calling on Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security to disburse the $34 million in federal money that was earmarked to fight terrorism in the NYC transit system.

She was flanked by MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

The MTA had been slated to receive the $34 million in federal Transit Security Grant Program funds, which support essential counterterrorism and transit security functions. Last week, lawmakers were notified that the MTA was to be the only agency of 21 applicants nationwide not to receive federal security dollars via this program.

In a ruling on Oct. 1 by U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, the Trump administration was blocked from withholding the money because of the city’s “sanctuary” policies. He invoked the 9/11 terror attacks and granted New York’s emergency motion for a temporary restraining order to stop the cuts, to remain in effect until Oct. 15, considering a request for a permanent injunction blocking the cuts. To date, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, has not formally notified the MTA that their funding has been restored.

Concurrent with the Oct. 9 press conference, representatives from both N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James’s office and FEMA went back to court, with Judge Kaplan expected to deliver a written order, prior to the expiration of the temporary restraining order, according to a representative of A.G. James’s office.

In her press conference, Hochul said, “Since 9/11, New York has relied on federal support to ensure that our transit system has the counterterrorism resources it needs to keep millions of riders safe every single day. The shocking actions of Washington Republicans to slash these funds and defund the police put New York City at risk.” The governor continued, “We will not tolerate these cuts; New York will take every action available to us—including the courts—to ensure the MTA gets this critical funding to keep millions of riders safe.”

Started after 9/11, the Transit Security Grant Program, administered by FEMA, supplies grants that support critical functions to keep mass transit systems safe from security threats. Out of the $34 million grant, $12 million would go to the NYPD. MTA’s use of the other $22 million would encompass two cybersecurity projects: deployment of approximately 330 tactical cellular cameras, and a mass-destruction chemical-detection system across nine subway lines and a commuter rail terminal.

Other grant uses call for frontline security awareness training, deployments of MTA Police Department counterterrorism teams, three new MTAPD counterterrorism vehicles, installation of several hundred cameras at access control points, and laser intrusion detection systems at a major subway complex.

After MTA Chair Janno Lieber spoke of the reductions of crimes committed on subway trains and buses, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch chimed in.

”The NYPD’s counterterrorism operations are essential to keeping people safe both above ground and below ground on our subways. Withholding these critical funds from the busiest transit system in the country is a profound mistake, and one that will make New York City’s subways meaningfully less safe. Counterterrorism operations–and public safety in general–cannot be politicized.”

After the formal part of the conference was over, Tisch addressed a question from a reporter about the relevancy of the Transit Security Grant Program to combat subway terrorism. She noted that, according to her recollection, eight plots have been foiled since 9/11 by NYPD counterterrorism squads.

The MTA carries a significant portion of the United States’s mass transit riders, with over 6 million daily trips taken on Metro-North, the Long Island Rail Road, and New York City Transit, about 25 percent of all mass transit use in the USA and Canada.