President Donald Trump’s administration has released $1.2 million in anti-terrorism funds to Chicago that a top mayoral aide believes were unfrozen because of the heightened risk of terrorism on U.S. soil stemming from the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The money released to Chicago will pay bills already incurred to purchase anti-terrorism equipment and to hire and train Chicago police officers, firefighters and paramedics to protect the city from bombings, cyberattacks or any other terrorist incidents.
Millions in funding from a counter-terrorism program known as “Securing the Cities” had been frozen since February, affecting 13 U.S. cities, including Chicago.
In May, Chicago filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security challenging the funding cut-off. Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Denver joined the legal fight more than a week later.
But the anti-terrorism funds were unfrozen only after Trump authorized a wave of cruise missiles and bunker buster bombs to damage Iran’s heavily fortified underground nuclear targets last weekend.
Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry said she believes the thaw, which represents just a sliver of the tens of millions of dollars in federal funding to Chicago snatched away by Trump, had less to do with the pending lawsuit and more to do with the military assistance provided to Israel in its conflict with Iran.
“We have been communicating through our operational department and legally since February requesting the release of funds. It was just not forthcoming,” Richardson-Lowry said Friday.
“Once the sitting president took the act that he did in terms of the bombing in Iran, that heightened the level of security issues for our nation and our cities, and it is more likely than not that, as a consequence, they felt finally compelled to release funds.”
Richardson-Lowry stressed that the spending continued — with money going to equipment purchases and training for first responders — even after the Trump administration’s funding freeze.
Chicago could not afford to be unprepared for major events like this weekend’s Pride Parade and next week’s NASCAR Street Race over the July 4th holiday weekend, as well as Lollapalooza and the traditional summer surge of violent crime, she said.
“What we did not want is to have a scenario where we had to stop our training, where we had to stop our equipment purchases. … We could not stop. But we did run up bills,” Richardson-Lowry said. “We are beyond delighted that the funds have been released. But … we must remain vigilant around any category of actions or inactions on the part of the federal government that impedes the city’s ability to be prepared in the event of a terrorist action.”
Deputy Corporation Counsel Steve Kane said “Securing the Cities” funds are used primarily to purchase equipment “designed to detect nuclear or radiological threats” and to train first responders to “use that equipment.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment about why the frozen anti-terrorism funds were suddenly released, even though there has been no legal ruling on the city’s lawsuit.
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), who chairs the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, said it’s obvious that Trump wanted political “cover in the event that something, the unspeakable, does happen in a major American city.”
But now that a fraction of Chicago’s frozen federal funding has been released, Hopkins urged the president to go further.
“If he really doesn’t want to wear the jacket, he should release money for vaccine research because, as it stands right now, we may not have a flu vaccine for flu season coming up,” Hopkins said. “They cut the money for that.”