Data-sharing work to get budget ax

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration intends to cancel a $12 million program that helped police in California build an information-sharing computer network the FBI used to identify a suspected terrorist within hours of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to people familiar with the decision.

Money from the same grants program helped officials in North Carolina improve local police and rescue services, efforts that earned praise from President Bush during his visit to the state last week.

The president told residents in Winston-Salem, which used $500,000 from the program to place high-tech mapping software and mobile computers inside fire trucks, that such improvements are part of a terrorism defense plan "that will make your community better." Bush did not mention the fire truck improvements, nor the grants program, specifically.

Bush's $2.12 trillion budget, to be announced today, includes no money in 2003 for the Commerce Department's Technology Opportunity Program, called TOP, said people familiar with the proposal.