The Senate Appropriations Committee has completed work on the FY 2004
Department of Homeland Security Bill. The House passed its version of
this funding legislation on June 24 (see FYI
#81.). Both bills provide more funding for the Science and Technology
account than requested by the White House. The Bush Administration requested
$803.4 million for the department's Science and Technology - Research,
Development, Acquisition and Operations account (there are other S&T
programs within the department.) The current budget for this account
is $551.9 million. The full House approved $900.4 million for the next
fiscal year, an increase of 63.1%. The Senate Appropriations Committee
has recommended $866.0 million, an increase of $314.1 million or 56.9%
over this year.
A table in Senate Report 108-086 provides specific funding
recommendations for various programs within this account.
What follows is the report language in this section of the
report:
"The Science and Technology Directorate was established by
Congress by Public Law 107-296, the Homeland Security Act of
2002, to support the advance of homeland security through
basic and applied research; fabrication of prototypes and
full-scale preproduction hardware; and procurement of
products, systems and other capital equipment necessary for
the provision and upgrading of capabilities to detect,
destroy, dispose, and mitigate the effects of weapons of mass
destruction. The Science and Technology Directorate also
supports other directorates and activities of the Department
in developing, acquiring and fielding equipment and procedures
necessary for performing their missions."
"The Homeland Security Act of 2002 established the Science and
Technology Directorate to coordinate and integrate all
research, development, demonstration, testing, and evaluation
activities of the Department of Homeland Security to reduce
the possibility of duplication and redundancy. The Committee
provides $64,000,000 for research and development for
activities supporting conventional missions of the Department
and directs the Under Secretary for Science and Technology to
coordinate research priorities with other directorates of the
Department. Research and development support activities shall
be distributed as follows: $30,000,000 for Border and
Transportation Security; $15,000,000 for the United States
Coast Guard; $4,000,000 for the United States Secret Service;
and $15,000,000 for Emergency Preparedness and Response.
"The Committee recognizes the need for a strong cyber security
research and development program and provides $18,000,000 for
threat and vulnerability testing assessments to develop the
most appropriate technologies for next generation cyber threat
characterization, cyber threat detection, and cyber threat
origination. The Committee expects the Under Secretary for
Science and Technology to coordinate these activities with the
Under Secretary for Information Analysis and Infrastructure
Protection.
"The Committee provides $55,000,000 for the establishment of a
university-based system to enhance the Nation's homeland
security efforts.
"The Committee provides $70,000,000 for the rapid development
and prototyping of technologies in support of homeland
security and the continuation of the partnership with the
Technical Support Working Group [TSWG] as a technology
clearinghouse. The Committee directs the Under Secretary for
Science and Technology to coordinate with other Directorates
to determine the best technologies available and to develop
better lines of communication with other directorates to
determine procedures for review and approval of technologies.
"The Committee recommends $72,000,000 for the critical
infrastructure protection portfolio to utilize consistent
methodologies and criteria to address uncertain and evolving
threats for the assurance of infrastructure security. Of this
amount, up to $60,000,000 for systems development, aircraft
integration analysis, and modeling and simulation performance
assessment of an antimissile device for commercial aircraft
may be made available. This is the amount recommended by the
Under Secretary for Science and Technology in the 'Program
Plan for the Development of an Antimissile Device for
Commercial Aircraft' provided to the Committees on
Appropriations on May 22, 2003.
"The Committee provides $20,000,000 for the construction of
the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center.
This appropriation, in addition to unobligated balances of
funds appropriated for biological research and defense
activities by Public Law 107-248, will provide the full
$90,000,000 requested for fiscal year 2004 to construct the
Center. The Committee encourages the Under Secretary to
coordinate construction activities with the Secretary of the
Department of Defense and the Secretary of the Department of
Health and Human Services in the development of the Fort
Detrick Biodefense Campus.
"Currently, there is a lack of standards within the field of
biometrics. While the National Institute of Standards and
Technology [NIST] has developed fingerprint image data
exchange guidelines, it has not addressed other technologies
such as facial recognition. The International Committee for
Information Technology Standards is attempting to define
biometric standards for data interchange formats, common file
formats, application program interfaces, profiles, and
performance testing and reporting, but has not yet completed
its work. The biometrics community still lacks complete
standards for accuracy (false non-match rate, real-world
performance goals) and interoperability. There are a number of
major technology systems within the Department, and across the
government, which capture or use biometric data that would
benefit from the development of standards for these images and
systems. The Committee encourages the Under Secretary to
consider, in coordination with NIST, the development of
standards in the field of biometrics.
"The Homeland Security Act of 2002 authorizes the Information
Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate to 'analyze
law enforcement information, intelligence information, and
other information from agencies of the Federal Government' and
'to identify and assess the nature of terrorist threats'. The
Committee is concerned that the intelligence operations of the
Department of Homeland Security have experienced inadequacies
in collecting threat information from other agencies of the
Federal Government while at the same time separate, individual
intelligence centers are being established and diminishing the
original intent of centralizing intelligence gathering. The
Committee expects the Secretary to work with other Federal
agencies in the coordination of information sharing for the
protection of the Nation's critical infrastructures."
Richard M. Jones
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