National Security February 19, 2020

Trump Looks To Cut Bomb-Sniffing Dogs At Transportation Hubs

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 27: A K9 unit sniffs pedestrians as Amtrak police officers work with the new devices designed to detect explosives at New York City's Penn Station on February 27, 2018 in New York City. The TSA has worked with devices known as stand-off explosive detection units since 2004 with transit agencies like Amtrak and New Jersey Transit, also its technology has been used to secure large-scale events like the Super Bowl and in a Los Angeles Metro station..(Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)

For a White House that touts keeping the country secure, at least one cut in Donald Trump’s 2021 budget runs to the contrary. The New York Daily News reports:

“Trump’s proposed 2021 budget released to Congress last week includes plans to eliminate a program that deploys dog teams to detect explosives at crowded travel hubs across the country.
Last year’s budget allocated $59 million for 31 of the dog units, formally called Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response Teams. Trump wants to slash those figures to zero.”

NY1 has reaction from Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY):

Schumer says there’s no need for cutting the program because it’s not too expensive.
“If the White House had its way, the K-9 teams that protect all of our transit hubs would be no more,” Schumer said. “Right now, the White House is putting forth a dangerous proposal to totally eliminate these VIPR K-9 teams. And any securty expert will tell you that they’re needed and they’re unique, and obviously, they’re mobile.”