Although the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology
Directorate is less than a year old, it is the eighth largest R&D
budget in the federal government. And while most other R&D agencies
have FY 2005 budget requests ranging from cuts to increases of a few
percentage points, the directorate's request is up 13.9%. The amount
of funding in this year's budget allocated to basic research is 15.0%,
with the administration seeking a decrease in the proportionate share
of funding for this research in FY 2005 to 8.4% of the total budget.
Within the last two weeks, Charles E. McQueary, Under Secretary for
Science and Technology for the Department of Homeland Security, has
testified before a House authorization committee and the Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on Homeland Security. At both hearings the reception he
was given was friendly and supportive. The common message to McQueary
in both of these hearings was similar: do it now.
The senators and representatives on these committees are acutely aware
of the terrorist threat facing the United States, as they go to work
every day on an increasingly fortified Capitol Hill. If there was any
complaint about the directorate's programs, activities or budgets,
it was that not enough is being done quickly enough to deploy new systems.
Committee members' questions reflected this attitude. They wanted
to know about systems to protect cities against biological attacks,
inter-operational communication systems for first responders, defeating
shoulder-fired missiles fired at commercial airliners, protecting industrial
facilities such as chemical plants, port security, border integrity,
border inspections and information sharing.
During the February 25 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity,
Science, and Research & Development, McQueary was asked about the
percentage of his budget devoted to basic research. He acknowledged
that basic research funding would drop from the current $117 million
to $80 million in FY 2005, from a proportionate share of 15.0% of the
directorate's budget to 8.4%. He said that "overtime [this budget]
will evolve into more fundamental research," adding the words "appropriately
so." His written testimony elaborates on this point:
"In the 11 months that this Department has been in existence,
the Science and Technology Directorate has focused its initial efforts
on near-term development and deployment of technologies to improve
our nation's ability to detect and respond to potential terrorist
acts. However, we recognize that a sustained effort to continually
add to our knowledge base and our resource base is necessary for
future developments. Thus, we have invested a portion of our resources,
including our university programs, toward these objectives. . . .
Our initial expenditures in basic research are heavily weighted by
our investments in university programs. These university programs
will not only provide new information relevant to homeland security,
but will also provide a workforce of people who are cognizant of
the needs of homeland security, especially in areas of risk analysis,
animal-related agro-terrorism, bioforensics, cybersecurity, disaster
modeling, and psychological and behavioral analysis. We expect to
gradually increase our total percentage of basic and applied research
to the level needed for sustaining our role as a research, development,
testing and evaluation (RDT&E) organization."
Regarding university and fellowship programs, McQueary testified that
the first University-based Center of Excellence was established at
the University of Southern California. Its mission, he stated, is to "assess
the level of risk associated with various terrorist scenarios, in particular
the potential economic consequences." Two more centers are to
be established, centering on Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense
and Post-Harvest Food Protection and Defense. The directorate has also
awarded 100 Scholarships and Fellowships selected from approximately
2,500 applicants. FY 2005 funding has been requested for 100 additional
Scholars and Fellows
Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) asked McQueary why the administration requested
a 50% cut in funding for the fellowship program. Byrd noted that the
appropriations committee wants the university community to play a major
role in homeland security research. McQueary explained that there had
been "considerable internal debate" about this decision,
and that it reached a point, he said, where "it was time for me
salute and say 'yes sir" . . . and [then] do the best we can." Most
of the increase that the administration has requested for next year
is for biological countermeasure systems for cities identified for
being at highest risk.
McQueary will appear before the House Appropriations Subcommittee
on Homeland Security, chaired by Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY), on March
30.
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