Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced Monday at a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing that the large amounts of money requested for "first responder" units had not been spent at the state and local level. According to CQ, between $8-9 billion in first responder grants appropriated in FY02-03 has yet to be spent. In Fiscal Year 2005, as we've noted earlier, the administration has proposed reducing first-responder funding by $800 million, down to a level of $3.6 billion, causing Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) to say the FY05 request was "deeply disturbing".