Congress Readies FY 2006 Homeland Security Funding Bill

The House and Senate will soon cast their final up-or-down votes on the FY 2006 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act. H.R. 2360 establishes a new Domestic Nuclear Detection Office with an overall budget of $318 million, of which $125.0 million is for “testing, development, and deployment of radiation portal monitors at the Nation’s ports-of-entry.” The FY 2006 budget for “Research, Development, Acquisition, and Operations” under the Science and Technology Directorate, which includes this new activity, increases by 35.7% or $374.1 million, to $1,421.0 million. The FY 2005 Directorate budget was $1,046.9 million.

There is extensive conference report language regarding other science and technology programs which can be accessed at
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app06.html under Homeland Security; see H. Rept. 109-241. The following are sections from the conference report pertaining to programs of particular interest to the physical sciences community:

RADIOLOGICAL AND NUCLEAR COUNTERMEASURES:

“The conferees agree to provide $19,086,000 for Radiological and Nuclear Countermeasures as proposed by the House instead of $226,000,000 as proposed by the Senate for Incident Management and Recovery, and Attribution and Forensics on Contaminated Evidence. Funding for all other Radiological and Nuclear portfolio activities is transferred to the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office.”

DOMESTIC NUCLEAR DETECTION OFFICE:

“The conferees agree to provide $318,014,000 for the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) instead of $127,314,000 as proposed by both the House and the Senate. The conferees direct not less than $81,000,000 of the amount provided is for evolutionary and transformational radiological and nuclear research and development activities. DNDO should leverage its resources with existing institutions, such as national labs and the research and development community, where practicable. In addition, $4,000,000 is included for deployment of detection systems at interstate weigh stations. The amount provided also includes $125,000,000, as proposed by the Senate within the S&T ‘Rad/Nuc’ research program and by the House within the Customs and Border Protection ‘Salaries and Expenses’’ account, for the testing, development, and deployment of radiation portal monitors at the Nation’s ports-of-entry. Language is included in the bill making this amount available until expended solely for this purpose.

“Excluding funding for radiation portal monitors, $144,760,500 may not be obligated until the Committees on Appropriations receive and approve an expenditure plan prepared by the Secretary and reviewed by the Government Accountability Office. None of these funds shall be obligated for establishing new programs, prototyping, or implementing a global systems architecture until the Committees on Appropriations receive and approve the expenditure plan. This plan shall include funding by program, project, and activity for each of fiscal years 2006 through 2010 and an organizational staffing plan, including contractors. full-time employee equivalents, and intra and inter agency detailees. In addition, the conferees direct the expenditure plan include a detailed description of the global nuclear detection systems architecture and milestones and costs, by fiscal year, for implementing the architecture. The plan should also include identification of the roles, missions, and responsibilities of DNDO as compared to the statutory responsibilities of all Federal agencies involved in radiological and nuclear detection and how the DNDO changes any current roles, responsibilities, and functions of each involved Federal partner in both the domestic and international arenas.”

NEW TECHNOLOGIES:

“The conferees believe new technologies may significantly help the Department as it seeks to secure our homeland. The conferees encourage the Department to develop such technologies as lightweight miniature cooling systems for protective gear; proteomic pathogen reference libraries; aquatic bioassessment; airborne rapid response mapping; mobile and non-intrusive cargo scanning; investments that focus on nuclear threats and biological attacks, such as aerosolized pathogens and the spread of zoonotic diseases as well as the spread of infectious disease such as SARS and avian flu; real-time detection, identification and assessment of chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological, explosive and concealed threats; mitigating hazardous material shipping violations; and leveraging intelligent transportation systems.”

NANOTECHNOLOGY:

“The conferees believe nanotechnology is a promising technology that can contribute significantly in the defense against terrorism. The conferees encourage S&T to pursue research in nanotechnologies that may aid in the detection of biological, chemical, radiological, and explosive agents; and to consider ways to use these technologies for protecting transit systems.”

UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS/HOMELAND SECURITY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMS:

The conference report provides $63.0 million for these programs. Last year’s budget was $70.0 million.