Posted on: Friday, May 2, 2003

Hawai'i gets $15M federal grant for security

Advertiser Staff

The federal government has given Hawai'i a $15 million homeland security grant, Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday.

"We hadn't expected to get $15 million in homeland security funds, but we're happy we did."

"I visited with Gov. (Tom) Ridge recently, the head of homeland security, and I think it helped for us to point out the special needs in Hawai'i, especially at our harbors and our airports because of the international flights," Lingle said.

"A lot of this money will find it's way down to the county level, which is where our first responders are."

Lingle said the grant would not affect planned federal reductions in the number of screeners at the airports.

Homeland security assistance has been made available to each state through grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office for Domestic Preparedness.

The money is intended to help meet costs of training and equipment, and costs associated with heightened security because of the military action in Iraq.