The outgoing New Jersey congressman who sponsored a bill to funnel $25 million a year to 9/11 memorials says the money will make the World Trade Center site less vulnerable to attack — but critics are not convinced.
“That whole area is very open,” Thomas MacArthur told The Post of the space around the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan. “Anybody could walk in there with a bomb strapped to their back and cause untold death and destruction.”
But some 9/11 family members fear the funds will subsidize the salaries of the private nonprofit foundation that runs the Ground Zero memorial and museum.
“If Rep. MacArthur wanted to bolster anti-terrorism at the 9/11 memorial, he should have written a bill that directed the $25 million to the NYPD and Port Authority Police, who are actually in charge of security at Ground Zero,” said Glenn Corbett, fire-science professor at John Jay College and an adviser to 9/11 families.
The measure, signed into law Wednesday by President Trump, authorizes grants up to $25 million a year from 2019 to 2023 for the “operation, security and maintenance” of memorials that commemorate the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
Retired FDNY Lt. James McCaffrey, a Ground Zero responder whose brother-in-law, Battalion Chief Orio Palmer, was killed on 9/11, contends the grants will do less to protect the site than bolster the memorial officials collecting six-figure salaries. September 11 Memorial President and CEO Alice Greenwald received $564,633 in compensation in 2017.
“People are making a lot of money there, and now they’re asking for a lot more. It’s throwing good money after bad,” McCaffrey said. “You already have the NYPD, the best police force in the world, providing security.”
In a statement, police officials said, “The NYPD works closely with the Port Authority Police and other federal, state and local agencies to ensure the safety of . . . visitors to the area.”
Meanwhile, the memorial foundation — led by ex-Mayor Mike Bloomberg — has signed a three-year contract with SOS Security of Parsippany, NJ, to provide unarmed guards at a total cost of $36.2 million, or $1 million a month, The Post has reported.
Foundation spokesman Michael Frazier would not specify how the federal funds might bolster safety. He issued a statement by Greenwald saying the law “can help ensure that 9/11 stories of courage, sacrifice and bravery endure for generations.”
MacArthur first sponsored the 9/11 Memorial Act four years ago.
“The 9/11 site has always been a target and New York City has enormous symbolic value for people who hate our country,” he said.
Congress passed the bill last month by a large margin.