The House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee’s mark-up last Thursday of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) FY ’11 budget added $254.5 million in discretionary spending to the request, with the Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) getting the lion’s share of the proposed increase.
The $43.9 billion mark-up includes $10.2 billion for the Coast Guard, $291 million more than requested, with a hefty $304.4 million increase in operating expenses more than outweighing $20 million in cuts to acquisition programs, mainly a $16 million hit to the Deepwater modernization project.
The proposed budget for FEMA is $7.6 billion, a $257 million increase over the request. Various fire assistance grants top the list of plus-ups by the panel, receiving $840 million more than requested. The subcommittee also added $50 million for state driver’s license security grants while leaving port security, and rail and transit security grant funding intact at $300 million, respectively.
The panel cut some grant programs including lopping $193 million from the request for the Urban Area Security Initiative, which would receive $907 million in FY ’11.
The Transportation Security Administration saw its budget request chopped by $105.5 million, including a $26.8 million cut for explosive detection and explosive trace detection systems. The panel is recommending that the agency’s discretionary budget be $8.1 billion.
The DHS Science and Technology Directorate is funded at $1.1 billion, a $53.2 million increase over the requested amount, while the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office would get $300.6 million, a $5.2 million cut.
In other areas, the panel is providing $9.8 billion for Customs and Border Protection, $64.5 million less than requested, with slight plus-ups for salaries and expenses, the Office of Air and Marine, and facilities, more than offset by $104.2 million in cuts to the Secure Border Initiative effort.
The US-VISIT program is funded at $346.5 million, an $11.9 million increase.
The National Cyber Security Division is funded at $380.7 million, a $1.9 million boost.