By Calvin Biesecker
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) yesterday sent a $55.1 billion FY ’10 budget request to Congress that seeks double-digit increases for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) department management and operations, the Inspector General’s office, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) while offering no new program starts.
The budget request includes the $42.7 billion in discretionary spending proposed by the Obama administration in February that represents a 6 percent increase over the FY ’09 budget (Defense Daily, Feb. 27). The $55.1 billion request, which also includes discretionary and mandatory fees, is 5 percent higher than the current budget authority.
The largest increase in percentage terms is for the NPPD, which is seeking $2 billion next year, a 69 percent increase from current levels. The biggest increases are for cyber security and the U.S. VISIT program.
The Obama administration is putting increased emphasis on cyber security and DHS is requesting $400 million in this area, including $355 million to develop and deploy technologies and risk mitigation strategies to detect, deter and counter threats. Funding will also help improve information sharing at the federal level, including with the intelligence community. In addition to new funding for technologies, risk mitigation and information sharing, NPPD is seeking additional funds to help with assessing critical infrastructure protection and cyber security programs across the 18 critical infrastructure and key resources sectors.
The budget request for U.S. VISIT is $356.2 million, a $56.2 million boost from FY ’09, with the bulk of additional funds sought for operations and maintenance due to the growth on the IDENT fingerprint database and the need to upgrade aging fingerprint matching hardware. Additional funding is also sought to improve IDENT capacity, program management, and to support the growing workload associated with going from collecting two fingerprints to 10 prints and the resulting matching requirement, as well as latent print processing and data sharing initiatives. Accenture [ACN] is the prime contractor on U.S. VISIT and key subcontractors include Cogent Systems [COGT] and Raytheon [RTN].
For department management and operations, DHS seeks $904.7 million, a 40 percent increase, with the biggest boost going to the Office of the Under Secretary for Management. Increases here include ongoing DHS headquarters consolidation, issuance of smart identity cards under HSPD-12 and improvements related to acquisition oversight.
Other significant budget boosts for DHS management are reserved for the Chief Information Officer, which is continuing to migrate agency systems for central management, and the Office of the Secretary and Executive Management.
TSA’s budget would increase 11 percent to $7.8 billion, with the aviation security bucket getting a 36 percent increase to $3.1 billion. Of this amount, $565.4 million is for accelerating deployment of checked baggage screening systems at airports “to ensure 100 percent of all checked baggage is screened with an in-line explosive detection capability system, or a suitable alternative,” according to DHS budget documents. This funding includes the acquisition of electronic baggage screening technology as well as facility modifications and recapitalization efforts.
Budget documents supplied by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) show that $294 million would go for the purchase and installation of explosives detection systems (EDS) of which at least $84.5 million would be for the purchase and installation of EDS at medium and small-sized airports. OMB says that the funding for the medium and small airports must be competitively awarded.
Only three companies currently supply EDS to TSA. They are General Electric [GE], L-3 Communications [LLL] and Reveal Imaging Technologies.
FEMA’s budget would increase 10 percent to $6.7 billion in FY ’10 with the Disaster Relief Fund accounting for the biggest share of the increase. The fund supports the federal response to presidential-declared disasters and emergencies. DHS would also double to $420 million the amount available for Fire and Emergency Response Grants that help fire departments increase their numbers of front line firefighters.
Funding for the Office of Inspector General is proposed to increase 30 percent to $127.9 million as the Obama administration seeks to increase staffing levels to improve oversight on a range of activities and acquisition programs.
The Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) receive relatively small plus-ups in the budget request. The Coast Guard’s Deepwater modernization program would get nearly $1.1 billion versus the current $1 billion, to fund the ongoing acquisition and development of new cutters, aircraft, program management and C4ISR systems. The funding request allows completion of the fourth National Security Cutter, production of four Fast Response Cutters, continued design of the Offshore Patrol Cutter, purchase of two HC-144A Maritime Patrol Aircraft, and upgrades to the HH-60 and HH-65 helicopter and HC-130 aircraft programs.
Companies benefiting under the proposed Deepwater budget include Northrop Grumman [NOC], Bollinger Shipyards, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., and Lockheed Martin [LMT].
The service’s total acquisition budget request is $1.4 billion, $100 million less than the current year. Funding for two ongoing programs, the Nationwide Automatic Identification System and the Integrated Operations Centers, is still available from prior years so no additional monies have been requested for these.
For CBP, the $11.4 billion request represents a 1 percent increase. The request is up a few million for the Secure Border Initiative to $779.5 million although no breakout between the technology and tactical infrastructure portions of the program is provided. CBP’s request includes $20 million for technology along the Northern Border.
An additional $26.1 million is also being requested to help combat weapons and currency smuggling from the United States into Mexico. Some of the additional funds will be used to expand and maintain the License Plate Reader program and support additional officers and agents.
The agency that takes the biggest hit in the budget request is the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, which sees its request drop 29 percent to $366.1 million in FY ’10. The budget zeros out systems acquisition due to continued delays in readying the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal (ASP) program for certification and subsequent production. Raytheon and Thermo Fisher Scientific [TMO] are developing and testing their own ASP systems for DNDO. A DHS official said there are already “a significant amount of funds already appropriated for the program, this is not a change in direction at this time.”
The Office of Health Affairs would also see its budget cut largely due to a reduction in funding for the BioWatch program. The request for BioWatch is $94.5 million, a $17.1 million cut, that will still support “the continued testing and evaluation of technologies and the operations and maintenance of technologies that are already deployed,” another DHS official said. BioWatch is deployed in over 30 U.S. cities and urban areas but involves manual retrieval of environmental samples. DHS this year is beginning a competition for an automated replacement system called Gen3.
The Science and Technology Directorate is receiving a modest boost, 4 percent, to its budget. The $968.4 million request would provide $24.7 million for research in explosives detection, a $10 million increase to develop high-throughput screening technology for cargo screening. Additional funds are also sought for cyber security research and new efforts to develop foundations for technologies for advanced detection and identification for border security.