http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=6945
"NASA currently funds a number of search and follow-up programs to find these near-Earth objects and to determine their orbits. With no additional funding to meet the Congressional mandate, NASA has carved $3.55M out of other portions of its planetary astronomy research and analysis program in FY2002. The Arecibo program is unique in the precision of its measurements and its ability to characterize these targets, but pressure from increasing costs in the search and recovery programs required to meet the 2008 deadline, with no increase in funding for the program to do the job, has caused NASA to cannibalize other programs."

And other victim of the ISS porkfeast.
I guess I would favor detection over characterization, but seems quite a waste of funds dropping this part of the program- good science return for a modest amount of money.