House appropriators this month as expected didn’t include any funding to continue building additional sections of a new border wall system begun by the Trump administration but did add to the Biden administration’s request for border security technology in some areas while reducing funding in others.
The appropriators recommend $333.8 million for the Customs and Border Protection procurement and construction account versus a request of $925.8 million. However, most of the proposed cut, $655 million for construction and modernization at land ports of entry, is funded elsewhere in the bill.
The bill, which was agreed to by the House Appropriations Committee on a party-line vote of 33 to 24 with Democrats in favor, would also slash the request for the first land variant of the Multi-Role Enforcement Aircraft (MEA) by $17.5 million, proposing $10.9 million to support award of the new contract for non-recurring engineering associated with the first aircraft.
CBP has completed purchases of the maritime variant of the MEA from Sierra Nevada Corp. and plans to issue a request for proposals for the land variant in fiscal year 2022.
The committee’s report accompanying the homeland security spending bill for FY ’22 rejects CBP’s attempt to incrementally fund the program and directs the agency to fully fund the total cost of an end item in its budget request.
The report says that the committee is recommending increases to the Biden administration’s request in the following areas: $50 million for border technology; $20 million for innovative technology; $8.8 million for small unmanned aircraft systems, $5 million for a border security common operating picture; $50 million for non-intrusive inspection (NII) equipment; and $3 million for electronic medical records.
However, later in the report, the committee says it is only recommending $50 million for border technology procurement, which will be for autonomous surveillance systems, cross-border tunnel threats, mobile surveillance, aerostats, geospatial capabilities, mesh networks, and search and rescue capabilities. The report also says it is providing just $5 million for a border technology common operating picture pilot program that integrates sensor feeds from current systems.
CBP in its request asked for $54.3 million in border security assets and infrastructure and $17.5 million for the COP. The agency said the request funding for the COP would purchase software licenses in support of an initial operating capability, establish and operating COP in Douglas, Ariz., and support about three initial deployments related to other Border Patrol programs.
Under a line item named Innovative Technology, the committee would provide $45 million, $25 million of which is funded within the operations and support account. The report says not more than $5 million should be spent on any one project and lists geospatial search and rescue, remote sensing, mesh networking, satellite communications, and aerostats as technologies for consideration by CBP.
The committee is also recommending a handsome increase for NII equipment, $50 million above the administration’s $32 million procurement request, highlighting that the additional funding is for systems at land and sea ports of entry.
Congress during the Trump administration provided huge chunks of funding for NII equipment, with the ultimate goal being to help CBP move toward meeting a 100 percent screening mandate for all cargo and vehicles entering the U.S.
The strong funding for NII equipment is good news for companies like Leidos [LDOS], OSI Systems [OSIS] and Smiths Detection, which are all providing CBP with scanning systems for screening cargo conveyances, rail cars and passenger vehicles.
TSA Funding
For the Transportation Security Administration, the committee matched the administration’s requests in the areas of operations and support, procurement, and research and development. The $134.5 million sought for procurement includes $104.5 million for the purchase of checkpoint computed tomography (CT) systems to screen carry-on bags.
The committee wants TSA to provide it with its procurement and deployment plan for completing checkpoint CT deployments at U.S. airports “by not later than 2026.” That appears to be a tight timeline.
TSA has purchased the first 300 checkpoint CT systems from Smiths Detection, which won the first tranche of the program in spring 2019. But the next purchase round isn’t expected until later this year, but should include at least two fiscal years of funding, possibly enough to carry two contractors and purchase more than 300 systems.
TSA has said it expects to acquire between 2,200 and 2,400 checkpoint CT systems. But at the current rate of deployment, which is less than 300 systems per year, it won’t reach the end goal by 2026 unless funding levels are increased.
Analogic, Integrated Defense & Security Solutions, and Leidos are also competing for checkpoint CT.
The committee’s bill also includes the full $24.6 million requested for Credential Authentication Technology used to verify travelers’ credentials at TSA checkpoints and to run a check against the Secure Flight database to verify a travelers’ status for a flight.