June 30, 2004, No. 88 The Senate Appropriations Committee has sent
the FY 2005 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill to the
floor. Under this bill, S. 2537, funding for the department's science
and technology programs would increase by 17.0% or $147.8 million over
the current budget to $1,016.7 million.
The House of Representatives has passed its own FY 2005 funding bill.
H.R. 4567 would provide a 22.4% or $194.9 million increase over this
year for "Research, Development, Acquisition and Operations"
for a total recommended budget of $1,063.7 million. The Bush Administration
requested $988.0 million. Further information on the House bill can
be found at http://www.aip.org/fyi/2004/079.html
The following selections pertaining to S&T programs of interest
to the physics community were taken from Senate Appropriations Committee
report 108-280. Readers wishing to view the committee's funding and
policy recommendations regarding all 17 S&T programs may access
the entire report at http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app05.html
NUCLEAR AND RADIOLOGICAL COUNTERMEASURES: "The Committee
provides $127,810,000 to rapidly develop and transition enhanced capability
to deployed detectors and systems and to rapidly incorporate recent
advances in prototype technologies into the near commercial assistance
of radiological and nuclear detectors and systems for use in operational
environments.[The House provided $122.6 million, as well as $6.7
million in the Management and Administration account.]
"Existing technologies being deployed by agencies at ports-of-entry,
including the United States Coast Guard and the Bureau of Customs and
Border Protection, provide an effective nuclear countermeasure system.
However, continued focused development can considerably extend these
capabilities in order to develop technologies for application to specific
locations, including those in the intermodal transportation system,
in the maritime domain, at border ports-of-entry, and in the aviation
industry. The Committee expects a significant expansion of the Countermeasures
Test Bed being conducted with the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey in testing technologies to detect radiation/nuclear threats to
include railway, general aviation facility monitoring, expanded roadways
coverage, and an additional seaport.
"The Committee is aware of technology proposals developed with
national laboratories to facilitate the inspection of containerized
cargo for fissile materials as a part of the normal off-loading process
at the Nation's seaports. The Committee understands this process would
not increase normal cargo off-loading process time and would provide
a detection capability not currently in place. The Committee encourages
the Department to investigate the feasibility of such technology as
a part of its efforts to secure our Nation's ports."
RAPID PROTOTYPING: "The Committee recommends $75,120,000
for research, development, testing, evaluation and timely transition
of homeland security capabilities to Federal, State, and local operational
end-users. [The House bill provided $76.0 million.] The Committee
expects the rapid prototyping program to continue to provide a mechanism
for accelerated development of technologies relevant to homeland security
by accelerating the time to develop and commercialize relevant technologies
in order to provide the operational end-user the ability to prevent
terrorist attacks, reduce the Nation's vulnerability, and minimize the
damage and assistance in recovery if attacks occur."
STANDARDS: "The Committee provides $39,239,000 for development
of consistent and verifiable standards in terms of basic functionality,
task appropriateness and adequacy, interoperability, efficiency, and
its sustainability to improve the quality and usefulness of homeland
security systems and technologies by actively engaging the Federal,
State, and local first responder. [The House bill provided $39.7
million.]
"The Committee expects standards development and implementation
projects for biological, chemical, high explosives, nuclear and radiological,
terrorist intent, cyber security, and critical infrastructure protection
to develop guidelines as a collaborative effort among vulnerability
analysts, tool developers, users, and standards experts."
UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS/HOMELAND SECURITY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMS: "The
Committee provides $69,048,000, an increase of $39,048,000 from the
budget request, to fund existing and future Homeland Security Centers
of excellence and to continue the university fellows program. The Committee
encourages the Department to consider all colleges and universities
that meet the requirements of 6 U.S.C. 188 in the selection of university-based
centers, including historically black colleges and universities, tribal
colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, Native Hawaiian-serving institutions,
and Alaskan Native-serving institutions." (The House bill provided
$70.0 million.)
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