Just as the House Appropriations Committee did in June, the Senate Appropriations Committee in July fully funded the Obama Administration’s request for $351.5 million for border security technology and related operations and maintenance (O&M) as part of the FY ’14 budget Homeland Security Budget Bill, leaving little doubt that Congress will provide Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with the requested amount.
The House has already approved its version of the bill, which includes $138.8 million for Southwest Border technology, $10 million for the Northern Border, $40 million for tactical communications, and $191 million for O&M. Of the technology funding for the southwest border, $77.4 million is for the fixed surveillance tower program called Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT).
The IFT program is already a year behind the initial plan, which called for a contract award in the first quarter of FY ’13 with deliveries beginning in FY ’14. However, due to more bids being submitted than expected and CBP ensuring that it is thorough in its evaluations of the competing offers, the contract award is expected in the first quarter of FY ’14 with deliveries beginning in FY ’15.
In a report accompanying the Senate Appropriators’ version if the FY ’14 Homeland Security Appropriations bill, they warn of concurrent deployment of the IFT systems before they are operational and the Border Patrol has good understanding of the systems. The committee is prohibiting the dual deployment until the systems are proven.
Current plans call for the initial IFTs to be deployed in Douglas and Casa Grande, Ariz.
If Congress ultimately agrees to the $351.5 million in border security funding, as is likely, it would be $27.8 million above the FY ’13 enacted level, excluding any impacts from the ongoing budget sequester.
The Senate Appropriators also point out that the Department of Homeland Security has $580,000 in unobligated prior year balances for border technology, Given the committee’s concerns about delays in the IFT program and the deployment of the systems in two areas of the southwest border before operations are well understood, it recommends rescinding $61.8 million in the unobligated balances.
The $10 million approved by the House and Senate Appropriators for Northern Border technology will go toward low-flying aircraft surveillance and maritime detection technology. Given increasing incidents of drug smuggling along the Northern Border, the Senate Appropriators want CBP to use its partnerships with the Defense Department to use military radar technology as much as possible along the Northern Border.
In its version of the appropriations bill, the House didn’t address military radar specifically for use along the Northern Border but did stress the need for DHS to take advantage of proven defense systems that may become excess equipment once they return from conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq for border security needs. Those systems include the VADER airborne ground surveillance radar, aerostats, manned and unmanned aircraft systems, and associated audio, visual, radar and other detection and monitoring systems.
Regarding aerostats, the Senate agreed to $37.4 million request by CBP to accept the transfer of eight Defense Department tethered aerostat systems, equipped with radars, to enhance the ability to identify low-flying aircraft in the border region. The committee says these systems have proven to be cost-effective in monitoring the border. The House report doesn’t mention the transfer request but the Senate report says the transfer is effective as of July 1, 2013.
The House and Senate bills are also similar for funding inspection and detection technology for use at border ports of entry in the U.S. The House funded CBP’s $112.5 million request for these technologies, which typically include radiation portal monitors and X-Ray systems for scanning cargo containers, while the Senate Appropriators slashed $1 million from the request with no explanation.