Mayors from around the country came to Washington on Thursday to lobby the Bush administration and Congress for financial help covering the additional $2.6 billion they will have spent by year's end.
"Cities across the country have yet to receive direct financial assistance from Washington for homeland security," said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "We need direct homeland security funding and we need it now."
About 50 mayors were joined by dozens of police chiefs and fire chiefs. Detroit Chief of Police Jerry Oliver said police aren't getting the support they need.
"We're really angry and frustrated," Oliver said. "We're really tired. One year and some days after 9/11 and we're still holding the bag.
"We don't have the equipment that we need, we don't have the technology that we need," he said. "There's this gamesmanship that's going on at the White House and the Congress."
The city officials were joined by New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said, "Despite all the rhetoric on homeland security, we've gotten very little money out of Washington."
President Bush told the mayors early this year that he wanted to see $3.5 billion going to state and local emergency responders. Officials at the White House office of homeland security had no immediate response to the mayors' complaints.
In August, Bush said he would not release $5.1 billion intended for fighting terrorism, noting that fiscal discipline could help the economy. That money would have included more than $150 million for local and state law enforcement resources.
Two of the biggest additional costs are equipment and overtime, according to estimates from a survey by the Conference of Mayors.
The mayors and Clinton said they support an approach that would send money back to the cities as a homeland security block grant, modeled after the Community Development Block Grant program. Most of the money would go directly to cities, with a smaller share going to states to be used for smaller communities, under legislation sponsored by Clinton.
The mayors met with Tom Ridge, the director of homeland security, as well as other members of the Bush administration and congressional leaders. They also lobbied for more money for child care, job training and law enforcement.
The mayors' request that federal money for security go directly to them puts them at odds with the National Governors Association, which wants federal money funneled through the governors. Governors feel they can direct the money where it is most needed.
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