As Congress looks toward adjournment in early to mid-October, one of
the few funding bills that might be completed is the FY 2005 Department
of Homeland Security Appropriations bill. (The Defense Department Appropriations
Act has been signed into law.) The House of Representatives passed their
version of this bill in June (see
http://www.aip.org/fyi/2004/079.html). The Senate passed its counterpart
bill earlier this month. Both versions recommend significant increases
in the Science and Technology account. Congressional leaders hope to
complete a final bill before adjournment.
The House bill recommends a 22.4%, or $194.9 million, increase in the
"Science and Technology – Research, Development, Acquisition
and Operations" budget to $1,063.7 million. The Senate bill provides
for a 17.0%, or $147.9 million, increase to $1,016.7 million The Bush
Administration requested $988.0 million. The current budget is $868.8
million.
The Senate bill, S. 2357, closely follows the House bill by breaking
out the Science and Technology Directorate's account structure into
17 activities. It adds an additional activity called "Interoperability
and Communications." Selections from Senate Report 108-280 accompanying
the bill follow. Readers wishing to review the complete report language
may do so 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.
"Existing technologies being deployed by agencies at ports-of-entry,
including the United States Coast Guard [USCG] 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 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
sustainability to improve the quality and usefulness of homeland security
systems and technologies by actively engaging the Federal, State, and
local first responder."
"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 recommended
$70.0 million.
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