Fossella Misses "Chairman" King, Others Not So Much

From the Staten Island Advance story 'Fossella slams shift at Homeland SecurityFears hard times for N.Y. with agency's Dem boss; others see improvement'

"That hurts New York," Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) told the Advance. "There was no better champion on these issues than Peter," he said. "That in itself is a loss. He's a hometown guy."

The loss was actually 40% of funding while King was the "champion."

"Fossella said he was concerned that Thompson might not be as open to arguments, put forth by New York lawmakers, that homeland security money should be allocated based on the degree of threat.
"I'm not making any projections," said Fossella. "But I don't know how sympathetic someone from Mississippi is going to be to New York City."

From the same article further down
"Thompson and King locked horns earlier this year when Thompson said King prevented Democratic committee members from adding amendments to restore funding for rail and bus protection to a House port-security bill.The committee also voted down Thompson's proposal to increase funding to the federal Department of Homeland Security by $6 billion above what was requested by the White House. King at the time said Thompson's figure was unrealistic."

So, King was against increased funding... I see....

How do other New York officials see the change?
Mayor Bloomberg says "It was helpful that Peter was there... but now we've got to make the case to the next head."
"City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) called King "a pit bull" who'd fought hard for homeland security dollars. "No one in either party can fault Congress member King for his efforts on that," she said.
However, Ms. Quinn added, "The sad truth was, the fact that he was a Republican didn't get us any more resources. Sadly, having a New Yorker in that position didn't make any difference."