Word: minimum
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...could this happen? It all comes down to the magic of fractions. Under the old 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...
...Cutting the minimum in half, from .75% to .375%, sounds like real progress, right? But it turns out that, while the new formula reduces the percentage, it starts with a much bigger pool. The minimum percentage, as written into the law, is now a percentage of state grants plus something called the Urban-Area Security Initiative, a separate program dedicated to high-risk cities. That program accounted for $747 million in 2007. So the impact of the lower percentage is undercut by the use of a much bigger denominator, notes the report, authored by CRS employees Shawn Reese and Steven...
...compare apples to apples, which is not easy to do in the Byzantine world of grant funding, then here is what you get, according to TIME's calculations: In 2007, 18 small and largely rural states received the minimum funding, each getting about .4% of the total pot. Under the new formula, those states will take home nearly as much - about .375% of the total. That number will decrease slightly each year, bottoming out at .35% in 2012. Yet that means Wyoming, with only .17% of the nation's population, will still qualify for at least twice that share...
...That's something, but a relatively small accomplishment for a bill that was so hard fought in Congress and was billed as a major achievement. "You are correct that it is not as stark as it might have looked," concedes a Senate aide. "But this bill does lower the minimum. It does go down." Notes the aide: "We've had bills in a couple of Congresses now to try to change the formula. The fact that it's taken us since 2004 to come to an agreement suggests how charged...
Scientists on the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned this week that the effects of global warming are already being felt in Africa. The IPCC's most recent report on Africa predicted a minimum 2.5 degree centigrade increase in the continent's temperature by 2030. Growing seasons will be cut short and stretches of land made unsuitable for agriculture, with yields declining by as much as 50% in some countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, between 25% and 40% of animals in national parks may become endangered. Africa's major bodies of water, including the Nile, will suffer excessive...