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Winners, Losers In The Security Budget
by Chris Strohm
House appropriators gave strong support for most Homeland Security Department technology efforts in the department's fiscal 2007 budget but expressed growing frustration with some programs and offices they said are underperforming or failed to provide required reports.
The House Appropriations Committee approved a budget bill last week that would give the department about $32 billion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2007, which would be about $1.8 billion more than in fiscal 2006. The bill is expected to go to the House floor this week.
Technology-related areas that enjoy the greatest support under the budget bill include: border and immigration security; cargo security; the new office on domestic nuclear detection; the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology system, or US-VISIT; and SAFECOM, which is intended to improve public-safety response through better wireless communications.
But appropriators reprimanded or slashed funding in several other technology-related areas, including: the science and technology directorate; the Coast Guard's Deepwater program to modernize aging equipment and vessels over 25 years; the customs and border protection division's air and marine recapitalization program; unmanned aerial vehicles; air-baggage inspection machines; and modernization of immigration and customs enforcement systems.
The Spending Plan At A 'Turning Point'
"This year marks a turning point for the department," said House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky. "It is four years old; it is already up and running; we now expect results. No longer will we tolerate excuses and delays due to reorganizations, personnel shortages and poor financial management."
Rogers said his panel is not hesitating to give the department "spankings and punishment."
For the second year in a row, the Bush administration proposed raising $1.3 billion by increasing airline passenger fees from $2.50 per travel leg to a $5 flat fee. But appropriators rejected the fee increase again, leaving a budget hole that they filled, in part, by cutting funding from several technology-related programs.
The cuts include: $37 million from US-VISIT, $10 million from CBP's modernization; $35 million from a tech integration program designed to improve national preparedness for emergencies; $21 million from a program for verifying the rights of immigrants to work in the country; and $31 million from research and development.
Appropriators offered heavy support to border, immigration and cargo security. Almost $20 billion would be provided for border security and immigration programs across the department, and about $4.2 billion would go toward cargo and port security.
About $4 billion would support the department's Secure Border Initiative, which is intended to curtail illegal immigration and criminal activity at the borders and inside the country. Of that, $115 million would go toward the first phase of the program, dubbed SBInet. It focuses exclusively on improving border security through a combination of technology, tactical infrastructure and personnel.
Appropriators said they are worried, however, that SBI lacks focus and measurable goals, so they agreed to require the department to submit a strategic plan by Nov. 1. "This plan should clearly align resources to tasks for the entire timeframe of the SBI and toward the program's ultimate goal of achieving operational control of our borders over the next three years," appropriators wrote in the budget report.
Appropriators agreed to withhold $25 million for SBInet until an expenditure plan is submitted.
Deepwater And More Programs In Deep Water
US-VISIT, which logs the entry of foreigners into the country and checks their biometric information against government databases, would get about $362 million -- $37 million less than the administration requested but $26 million more than was provided in fiscal 2006. Appropriators, however, would only let the department spend $50 million until it completes an expenditure plan for the program.
Appropriators also directed Homeland Security to complete strategic planning and cost and schedule estimates by July 1 for capturing 10 fingerprints of each person entering the country. The system currently only captures two fingerprints. Under the bill, the department would have to develop the strategic plan in 2006 but has not done it yet.
Another provision would require a strategic plan for port and cargo security. Under the plan, the department would have to double the percent of incoming cargo that is both inspected and screened for radiological materials. The plan would have to show how the department will screen all cargo through the Automated Targeting System, and validate the security plans of all shippers that participate in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program.
The bill further would provide $500 million for the nuclear detection office. But no money could be used to develop sodium-iodide-based advanced spectroscopic portal monitors for scanning cargo until the department can prove that those systems work better and are more cost-effective than advanced radiation portal monitors.
Programs and offices that would take the hardest hits are those that have consistently failed to produce, evidence that lawmakers are not only frustrated with them but willing to slash funding.
The Deepwater program was highlighted. "The committee is very concerned about the Coast Guard's ability to manage complex, large-scale contracts," appropriators wrote. "As evidenced by contracts for Rescue 21, HH-65 helicopter re-engining, and the fast-response cutter, the Coast Guard's executive leadership is consistently failing to manage its acquisitions and meet critical, operational requirements."
Overall funding for Deepwater would be $893 million, $42 million less then requested and $31 million less than fiscal 2006 spending.
Appropriators denied $41.5 million for the production of a new fast-response cutter. "Until ongoing problems are resolved, the committee cannot continue to support a program that has so much risk of failure that it may be terminated or substantially revised," they wrote. Instead, the budget would allow the Coast Guard to reprogram $79 million in unobligated funds to buy already existing patrol boats.
Of UAVs and Explosive Detection
Appropriators expressed strong support for department-wide efforts to develop and deploy unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, but said recent setbacks caused them to cut funding in that area. For example, the budget would provide $35 million less for Coast Guard UAVs than current levels due to an unspecified in-flight mishap. The budget also would withhold $6.8 million for CBP to procure another UAV until the agency reports findings of an investigation into an April 25 crash of a UAV outside of Nogales, Ariz.
Appropriators further said they are worried about skyrocketing costs at the Transportation Security Administration to maintain explosive-detection systems and machines to detect explosive traces at airports for screening baggage. Maintenance costs have risen from $75 million in fiscal 2003 to $200 million in fiscal 2006, they wrote.
The budget would provide $136 million for explosive-detection systems, $45 million more than requested but $37 million less than 2006 spending. Of that, appropriators specified that not less than $56.6 million could be used to procure advanced in-line and stand-alone systems to replace aging trace-detection machines.
"This legislation supports our critical homeland security priorities, keeps the department on track to produce results, and continues the committee's tradition of strict accountability," Rogers said.
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