Cutting Equals Stopping. The House’s version of the FY ’12 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, which cuts 77 percent of the research and development budget within the Science and Technology Directorate, would bring key programs to a grinding halt and also hurt work with small businesses, a homeland security official tells Congress. It means that research in cyber security and bio-defense will stop and S&T will not be helping DHS components in establishing realistic requirements and in the test and evaluation process, Paul Benda, chief of staff for the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, tells a House Homeland Security Committee panel. He also says that the number of Small Business Innovation Research awards, which average around 60 per year, will drop to four.