ALBANY (AP) -- Upstate New York's metropolitan regions are set to lose a total of almost $10 million in anti-terrorism funding because of federal budget cuts.
The Department of Homeland Security notified 30 cities around the country they won't get Urban Areas Security Initiative money in this year's budget.
That includes $5.5 million that went last year to Buffalo, $2.3 million for Rochester and about $1 million each for Syracuse and Albany.
The agency says Thursday the program took a $170 million hit as Congress cut $780 million from its budget for state and local preparedness grants and the priority became 31 high-threat urban areas, including New York City and Washington.
While Mayor Michael Bloomberg and downstate lawmakers praised the agency for maintaining $151.6 million allocated to the metro area, Sen. Chuck Schumer and others criticized the upstate cuts and said they'd try to reverse them.
(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
