NEW HAVEN - Underscoring the importance of homeland security resources for New Haven harbor, Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3) today joined Mayor John DeStefano and New Haven Police Department Deputy Chief Brian Norwood to unveil new port security cameras recently purchased with homeland security funding.

“New Haven harbor is without question a vital asset to our region - but it is also a vulnerable target,” said DeLauro. “The new port security cameras we are rolling out today help us take a big step forward toward securing that vulnerability by monitoring potential threats.”

New Haven harbor stores over 200 tanks of gasoline, jet fuel, chemicals and is home to over 850,000 barrels of oil for the Department of Energy's Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve. It supplies 81 percent of petroleum and by-products to the entire Northeast, and its pipeline runs from the harbor to Bradley International Airport and serves two military bases, including Westover Air Force Base, a strategic transport center for cargo transfers to the Middle East.

“These cameras also underscore the need for additional homeland security funding for New Haven,” said DeLauro. “Our country’s homeland security needs have not diminished even though the national threat level is low. For high-risk cities like New Haven this funding is crucial.”

Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that Connecticut would lose $10 million in grant funding directed to New Haven through the an Area Security Initiative and $8.4 million for the state overall through the State Homeland Security Grant Program.

New Haven planned to utilize some of this funding to implement a program with the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence at the Yale School of Medicine and the Child Study Center at the Department of Psychiatry at Yale to train first responders to deal with traumatized children subsequent to a terrorist attack.

“Homeland Security is simply too important for anyone to be playing politics with it - the stakes are far too high,” said DeLauro. “I will continue to work in a bipartisan way with the Governor and state and local officials to restore this funding and seek out additional resources.”

Earlier this month, DeLauro wrote to outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, asking that he reinstate funding and give an explanation for the cut.

DeLauro is a member of the Congressional Port Security Caucus and was a member of the Select Committee on Homeland Security, which created the Department of Homeland Security.