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The Security Budget Clashes To Come
by Greta Wodele
President Bush proposed a big funding boost for various anti-terror missions of the Homeland Security Department when he released his fiscal 2006 budget earlier this month. But lawmakers already have highlighted certain perceived inadequacies, signaling that the department could receive more money for state and local emergency responders, research and development, cyber security, and other counter-terrorism measures.
The House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee held its first hearing recently and plans to hold several other meetings to focus on specific agencies within the department. The House Homeland Security Committee is holding hearings at the subcommittee level. On Wednesday, the Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity Subcommittee will discuss areas under its jurisdiction.
Senate committees have yet to hold oversight hearings for the department's budget, but several senators have spoken publicly against parts of it.
First-Rate Funding For 'First Responders'
Funding for firefighters, police officers and other "first responders" has proven one of the thorniest security programs with members of Congress. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the department has distributed nearly $14 billion to state and local communities to buy equipment and new technology, and to train first responders for a potential terrorist attack.
If Congress passes the president's budget, that number would increase to $17 billion. However, several lawmakers view Bush's proposal as a funding cut because he proposed the same amount for the federal grant program -- $3.6 billion -- in fiscal 2006 that he proposed last year.
Congress raised the amount to $4 billion in the department's fiscal 2005 spending law, and lawmakers appear ready to increase the ante again this year.
New Jersey's Bill Pascrell, ranking Democrat of the Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness, Science and Technology Subcommittee, criticized the president for seeking cuts of 30 percent to grants for firefighters. The money is funneled directly to fire departments to buy equipment and hire additional firefighters.
"These reductions represent a continuing pattern in which the president has either not included any funding for the Fire Act, going back three years, or substantially reduced funding below what Congress, in a bipartisan way, appropriated the prior year," Pascrell said. "It is my hope that members of this committee can help bring the funding for emergency preparedness in our nation's communities up to the levels that address the major shortages we see in more than two-thirds of the communities in our country."
New York Republican Peter King, chairman of the subcommittee, argued that a "slightly lower level of spending should not be equated with a lack of commitment to first responders." He added that Congress and the president have made an "enormous investment" in state and local preparedness over the last three years and that much of the funding remains unspent.
James Carafano, a homeland security analyst with the Heritage Foundation, recently argued against the concept of funding for first responders, saying the government made a fundamental mistake after the 9/11 attacks by appropriating billions of dollars to state and local communities.
"[W]e assume that the purpose of federal dollars that would go to state and local governments for capacity-building, that we had to increase the capacity to help respond to terrorist attacks, and that was an enormously bad strategic choice because we can, quite honestly, pour money into that forever," Carafano said. He argued that the money should be used for a national preparedness system that the private sector, state and local governments can use.
A Critical Budgetary Issue
Lawmakers also have complained about the president's idea to consolidate all grants for port, rail and other mass-transit security and other critical assets into one program.
Maine Republican Susan Collins, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said she would "fight to preserve a competitive grant program dedicated to port security." She added, "I believe port security has not received the attention it deserves nor the funding that is needed."
Collins noted that her colleagues repeatedly have increased the administration's funding requests for ports. Two years ago, the administration did not request any funding targeted specifically at port security, Collins said, and Congress appropriated $125 million. Last year, the president's budget request included $46 million for port security, and Congress appropriated $150 million. Port officials said recently they need $400 million a year to bolster security.
Bush's funding proposal to protect critical infrastructure such as mass transit and nuclear and chemical facilities also has been criticized. Under the proposal, the government would allocate $600 million in grants to protect key assets. One Homeland Security official said the amount is nearly double last year's allocation for the grants.
A fight also could erupt over the proposal to appropriate funding for first responders based on risk and vulnerability. Rural lawmakers last year successfully rebuffed efforts by urban legislators to give more money to their high-risk cities. The administration decided it agreed with urban lawmakers and changed the formula for all the grants next year.
But Collins has introduced legislation that would preserve the current allocation, which distributes 0.75 percent of the funding to every state. Bush proposed lowering that percentage to 0.25 percent and allocating the remaining funds on vulnerability.
The proposal reflects legislation offered last year by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Christopher Cox, R-Calif. Collins has re-introduced her legislation, and Cox plans to do so as well.
The Tab To Protect Cyberspace
On cyber security, House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., said the administration over the years has proposed "flat spending" to combat cyber attacks. And several lawmakers complained last year that Homeland Security's cyber division does not receive adequate attention and resources.
Charles McQueary, who heads the department's science and technology directorate, said his division would spend $17 million on R&D for cyber countermeasures. He said the department is working with the National Science Foundation to establish a joint laboratory to test cyber-security technology. "[Y]ou don't want to do testing out on the open Internet; you want to have something that's confined to be able to do that," he said.
He added that the department is funding research in Internet addresses and other cyber activities but plays primarily a "supporting role" on the government's cyber-security efforts.
The overall budget request for the science and technology office is $1.4 billion -- $253 million more than the directorate received last year. The president last year requested $1 billion, but Congress increased the funding to $1.1 billion.
McQueary told lawmakers the funding includes requests for a national biological and agricultural defense facility, a low-volatility-agent warning system, radiological and nuclear countermeasures and devices to protect against shoulder-fired missiles, as well as consolidation of the department's research and development units.
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