President Obama’s budget proposal includes “ill-advised and disappointing reductions” in funding for crucial physical security programs, Security Industry Association (SIA) officials said. The fiscal year 2010 budget would cut hundreds of millions of dollars from transit, port and school security programs and provide them with much less money than the amount authorized by Congress or recommended in recent legislation. The President seeks to reduce funding for the Transit Security Grant Program and the Port Security Grant Program from the current $388.6 million each to $250 million each. Congress authorized $900 million for the transit program and $400 million for the port program for fiscal 2010. “President Obama is looking for cuts in all the wrong places,” SIA Director of Government Relations Don Erickson said. Erickson is a frequent Security Magazine columnist.