Word: homelands
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Over the summer, Congress passed and the President signed a new homeland-security law called "Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act." Finally, homeland security has been rationalized, we were told. The new law would fix the way money gets distributed so that the states at a greater risk of terrorism received a larger proportion of money, just as the 9/11 Commission had wisely recommended. After the bill was passed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bragged that a Democratic Congress had done what the Republicans could...
...formula, every state was guaranteed at least .75% of the state-grant program - a very high minimum compared to other federal programs, which made sure that even less populous states with a relatively small risk of terrorism received a sizable chunk of cash. Since 9/11, billions of dollars in homeland-security grants have gone out under this bizarre and nonsensical formula, which TIME investigated in-depth in 2004. In the new law, however, Congress cut the minimum to .375%, and set the percentage to decline a little bit more each additional year...
...truth is, if homeland security money were truly distributed based on risk, there would be no guaranteed minimum at all. Guaranteed minimums are useful only for getting states up to speed - or for pork-barrel indulgences. At this point, all states have received enough money to set up a basic emergency infrastructure. So the rational thing to do would be to focus our limited resources on high-density, high-risk locations. But Congress is not rational. The Senate gives disproportionate power to small states, and those states do not want to lose their homeland-security entitlements. So the result...
...shorter criminal process and faster trials. Its economy boomed throughout the 1990s and, after a brief hiccup in 2003, clocked a 2006 GDP real growth rate of 10.7 percent. But to an estimated 800,000 Haitians currently living in the Dominican Republic, the country with which their homeland shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, is anything but an exemplar of development and democracy...
...thoroughly enjoying reading your Australian Journeys edition on rivers [Sept. 17]. The magnificent photography and the beautiful and sometimes tragic stories made me realize why I have such a passionate fondness for my adopted homeland, this ancient continent of adversity and contrast. I hope your story will send a cooee around the world to all expatriate Australians. Margit Alm, Melbourne...