Investigative Reporting Blog on Bennie Thompson, Hinds Homeland Security funds

The Center for Investigative Reporting says the press missed a "politically intriguing" story about Hinds County, Homeland Security funds, and Congressman Bennie Thompson.

The Center for Investigative Reporting has offered up numerous stories by now of communities running into trouble with federal grants awarded to them by Washington for anti-terrorism and preparedness purposes. But one of the most politically intriguing so far surfaced in early October.

That’s when the Department of Homeland Security told local authorities in Hinds County, Miss., that they needed to return public-safety equipment purchased with the funds that went unused. The list of questioned gear apparently accumulating dust included tanks for oxygen masks, four-wheelers, search-and-rescue tools and even “heavy-duty trucks,” according to one local news account.

What did that news account neglect to mention? Hinds County is represented by Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson, chair of the powerful House Homeland Security Committee. Thompson doesn’t just back the $33 billion Congress has handed out in readiness grants to states and local communities since 2002. He’s chided FEMA for trying to implement a policy that would have required grantees to use their own money for maintaining equipment they’d already bought.