Gee... how many years after 9/11

Has it been? Shouldn't this have been the first thing on the to do list?:

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The federal government will distribute nearly $1 billion in grants to states and cities to purchase emergency communication equipment. The funding is meant to fix the communications problems that many police and fire departments have in responding to disasters such as the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Many of the more than 300 New York City firefighters lost their lives because their communications equipment wasn't functioning, and they were unable to hear the warning to evacuate the twin towers.

The biggest share of the grants goes to three states, California with $94 million, Texas with $65 million and New York with $61 million. Within those states, several large cities get a major chunk with New York City getting $34.8 million and the Los Angeles/Long Beach metro area getting $22.3 million, the Associated Press reports.

Why on earth are they doing this all ass-backwards? I guess the Bush administration ran out of cronies it could siphon off money to...