Budget
White House Adviser Urges Funding Equality For All Sciences
     Though President Bush's fiscal 2004 budget proposal would not provide as much funding for research and development programs as some seek, it demonstrates that the administration is addressing concerns about the balance between R&D funding for the physical and life sciences, a White House official said. Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Marburger said the administration is committed to funding basic research and has listened to concerns from the scientific community and lawmakers to ensure that there is a federal priority on physical sciences as well as life sciences. The president's budget "sends a strong signal that we are addressing the concerns about balance raised by this committee and the scientific community," Marburger told the House Appropriations subcommittee that sets funding for the Veterans Affairs Department, Housing and Urban Development Department and other federal entities. In the mid-1990s, Congress agreed to double the funding for the National Institutes of Health and to invest heavily in life-sciences research, while the National Science Foundation, the Energy Department and some agencies received small increases in R&D funding. That approach raised concerns about the balance of the nation's R&D portfolio.

Security
Transition May Pose Tech Challenges To Immigration Entities
     The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) will face some daunting technological challenges as it becomes part of the Homeland Security Department and dramatically reorganizes its internal structure, a senior INS official said. "To fully realize success in the Department of Homeland Security, we need to exploit technologies that we have only dabbled in up to this point," Mike Becraft, the INS' acting deputy commissioner, said during a conference sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. Becraft noted that for much of the past decade, the INS lacked an "enterprise architecture," or a blueprint to guide its efforts to integrate information systems, reduce paperwork and improve efficiency. "We didn't know what our business models really were," Becraft said. "Frankly, I think we wasted a lot of money. We really didn't know what we were about, and we know much more about that today. But the sharing of information ... is still going to be a challenge."

Executive Branch
CIA To House Key Homeland Department Function
     The Bush administration plans to locate the Homeland Security Department's information-analysis function, a key component of the law creating the department, at a new interagency anti-terrorism center at the CIA, a top department official said. "We will not have a separate analysis center," Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Gordon England said before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. England faced careful questioning on the relationship between the new department, which was given explicit information-analysis authority in the law enacted last fall, and the Terrorist Threat Integration Center proposed by President Bush in his State of the Union address. In addition to Homeland Security's statutory authority, the existing CIA Counter Terrorism Center already brings together experts from all of the agencies in question, including Homeland Security, to conduct information analysis. When it begins operations May 1, the new center will be housed at the CIA, raising questions about continuing turf battles between intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

On The Hill
Bipartisan Group Of Senators Bash FBI, File Oversight Bill
     Three key senators on judiciary issues blasted the FBI for ongoing failures and introduced a bill to increase congressional oversight of the agency's surveillance activities. "The FBI is not adequate to provide the American people with intelligence," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said. "This failure goes right to the top." Specter leveled harsh criticism at FBI Director Robert Mueller for his failure to satisfy demands for information from members of Congress. He also said the FBI has failed to apply the correct standard in cases involving the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which provides a statutory framework for electronic and other surveillance powers aimed at collecting foreign intelligence information inside the United States. Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, also attacked the FBI after the trio released a report alleging continued failures in understanding FISA and encouraging internal reform. The three senators, who began FBI oversight efforts in the 107th Congress, also introduced legislation that would require surveillance on public and university libraries to be reported to the House and Senate Judiciary committees.

Intellectual Property
Back To School: Valenti Lectures Students About Piracy
     The top lobbyist for the movie industry is making the rounds at colleges and universities, appealing to students to stop stealing movies and music over the Internet. Jack Valenti of the Motion Picture Association of America visited Duke University in North Carolina and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., this week stressing the "moral imperative" of obeying intellectual property laws. He expects to speak at other educational institutions, such as D.C.'s Catholic University, in the near future. Also this week, higher education officials faced sharp questioning from a congressional panel over why they have yet to expel or prosecute students for online piracy even though it is clear that many college students are illegally exchanging copyright material through universities' high-speed networks. Texas Republican Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee, said his conclusion from the hearing is that universities' current efforts to curb online piracy are not working and that more needs to be done.