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STATE CAPITOL BRIEFS Two Democratic Bay State congressmen are protesting the “low-risk” rating assigned to the Port of Boston and less-than-requested funds aimed to bolster security. In a letter sent today to Secretary Michael Chertoff, head of the Department of Homeland Security, Reps. Ed Markey and Steven Lynch questioned assigning Boston’s port close to the bottom of the risk rankings and called for re-evaluation. “As you know, in the latest [Port Security Grant Program] round, DHS provided the Boston port area with $147,750 in funding, which represents less than 5 percent of the total amount of funding requested in a total of 10 Massachusetts applications,” they wrote. “We urge the Department to immediately reopen its evaluation of the security risks at the Port of Boston to more accurately place the port in a higher risk category that reflects the port’s unique security challenges and enables applications from the Boston port area to be eligible for additional funding available for ports in higher risk tiers.” The two lawmakers also noted the port handles more than 1.3 million tons of general cargo, 1.5 million tons of non-fuels bulk cargo and 12.8 million tons of bulk fuel cargos annually, including gasoline and oil, and shipments to the LNG facility in Everett must travel through Boston Harbor and other densely populated communities. In a release accompanying the letter, Lynch, accused Republicans of playing “pork barrel politics with homeland security.” He said, “There is no other way to explain why Old MacDonald's Petting Zoo in Huntsville, Alabama, was classified as ‘critical infrastructure’ by DHS, while the Port of Boston is under-funded." -State House News Service- |