25 years later, President Trump has discarded the lessons of 9/11

After the horrific assault on our country on Sept. 11, 2001, Congress came together to confront the failures that left our nation vulnerable and build a stronger homeland security system to prevent another attack. During his second term, President Donald Trump has dismantled and politicized our national security programs and federal law enforcement to such a degree that he is leaving us vulnerable to another large-scale terrorist attack. At the same time, he has recklessly launched an illegal and failing war in Iran — drastically increasing threats to the nation.

As leaders in Congress who have overseen — and helped create — many of our national security programs over the past 25 years, we know we need to focus on plugging real security gaps — not senselessly creating new ones while turning agencies created to protect us against the American people.

After 9/11, Congress, with bipartisan support, created anti-terrorism grants to help cities and states protect themselves from future attacks. Yet the Trump administration has wasted time and resources by making these critical grants the subject of political handwringing and litigation, while withholding, reducing or delaying hundreds of millions of dollars in security funding for our communities.

For example, the Trump administration attempted to cut New York state and New York City’s grant funding last year by $187 million and only retreated after political blowback and lawsuits — some of which are ongoing. It is an outrage that anti-terrorism grant money rightfully owed to our brave first responders, is now something communities must fight for in court.

Twenty-five years after terrorists defeated a weak aviation security system to carry out the deadliest-ever attack on U.S. soil, the Trump administration is pushing to bring back that same flawed system by moving to privatize the........

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