By Calvin Biesecker
Just over a month after the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard a Detroit-bound passenger plane, the Obama administration yesterday sent Congress a budget request that includes a 14 percent increase for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in FY ’11, with particular attention given to the purchase of another 500 full body scanners that would be deployed at checkpoints at most airports in the United States.
The $8.2 billion request for TSA in total budget authority is part of a $56.3 billion request for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) overall in FY ’11, 2 percent higher than the FY ’10 budget. The discretionary budget request for DHS in FY ’11, which is what congressional appropriators will act on, is $43.6 billion, nearly 3 percent more than Congress approved in FY ’10.
Beyond FY ’11, DHS is planning to continue modest budget increases that are roughly in line with the rate of inflation, Peggy Sherry, the acting chief financial officer at the department, said yesterday during a teleconference with reporters. That is a shift from what DHS officials had warned Congress and others last year, when it said that beginning in FY ’11 the department’s budget requests would begin declining, at least in real terms (Defense Daily, Nov. 20, 2009). Without mentioning a specific event or a new outlook by the Obama administration, Sherry said yesterday that the budget process responds to “different scenarios and options.”
Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), chairman of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, applauded the proposed budget, saying it attempts “to strike a balance between achieving fiscal sustainability and addressing critical security challenges. We will not agree on every proposed cut or increase, but we will work with the administration to achieve that balance through the appropriations process.”
Price likes the budget for its emphasis on filling gaps in aviation security, in particular the whole body imaging systems.
The TSA request for the body scanners, called Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT), is $214.7 million, and would purchase 500 of the systems, the most the agency has ever budgeted for.
Already, TSA is under contract with OSI Systems [OSIS] to buy 150 of the company’s backscatter X-Ray based systems and has deployed 40 of L-3 Communications‘ [LLL] millimeter wave-based scanners. The agency plans to purchase another 300 AIT systems in FY ’10 and currently can buy them from either OSI’s Rapiscan division or L-3.
All combined, the existing and planned purchases would be for 990 AIT systems, which DHS says would provide coverage at 75 percent of the checkpoint lanes at Category X airports, the largest, and 60 percent of the lanes and Category X, I and II airports. A DHS official said yesterday said the reason 100 percent of lanes are not being covered, particularly at the nation’s 28 Category X airports is based on risk assumptions. The nearly 1,000 systems are 112 more AIT systems than TSA’s previous requirements. A DHS official said yesterday that these machines would likely be used for primary screening but that this has yet to be determined.
Interestingly, DHS budget documents sent to Capitol Hill yesterday call for 1,800 AIT systems at Full Operating Capability. TSA manages 2,225 security lanes throughout all the country’s airports, which means the agency is looking at having a system at nearly every security lane, much the way walk-through metal detectors are deployed now.
The budget request also includes $218.9 million to hire 5,355 additional Transportation Security Officers and managers to operate the AIT systems.
TSA’s overall budget request for passenger aviation is $769 million, and also includes $374 million for explosives detection systems to screen checked baggage and $60 million to buy new portable explosive trace detectors (ETD). The ETD funds include $39 million for the actual systems, which a DHS official said are not the traditional desktop machines, and $21 million for related consumables.
As with last year, DHS is seeking a hefty increase in funding for departmental operations. The FY ’11 request is for $1.3 billion, a 58 percent boost or $467.9 million over FY ’10 in total budget authority. More than half of the increase, $288 million, is related to construction of DHS’s consolidated headquarters facility at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.
About $80 million more of the proposed increase is also related to DHS headquarters consolidation.
Another winner in the budget is the next-generation system for detecting biological threats in the atmosphere in major urban areas around the country. The Gen-3 BioWatch program has suffered a number of delays but last year launched into a test phase with the award of contracts to Northrop Grumman [NOC] and United Technologies [UTX] to supply prototype units (Defense Daily, Nov, 18, 2009).
The BioWatch request is $173.5 million, an $84 million increase over FY ’10. In FY ’11 the Office of Health Affairs will purchase 476 of the Gen-3 autonomous detectors and begin testing and evaluation of the production systems, DHS said.
The Coast Guard emerged from the budget process with a relatively level budget request, $10.1 billion, down less than $50,000 from FY ’10. The Deepwater modernization program fared well, accounting for $1.1 billion of the service’s nearly $1.4 billion acquisition request.
The Deepwater request, which is essentially the same amount as Congress appropriated in FY ’10, includes $538 million for the fight National Security Cutter of eight planned National Security Cutters, which are built by Northrop Grumman [NOC]. The budget would also fund four Fast Response Cutters built by Bollinger Shipyards for $240 million and one HC-144 Maritime Patrol Aircraft to be supplied by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. for $40 million.
To help pay for the Coast Guard’s ongoing modernization, DHS is proposing to chop 1,100 personnel from the service’s active duty roster.
Just as there are budget winners, there are also losers. One of the biggest is Customs and Border Protection’s Secure Border Initiative (SBI) program, which would suffer a $225.8 million hit in FY ’11 versus the FY ’11 funding. Around $574 million is requested for next year.
The proposed cut stems from program delays due to issues associated with technology issues with components of the electronic fence portion of the program, which is being built by Boeing [BA] (Defense Daily, Jan. 22). Those issues and further delays have prompted DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to undertake a review of the program and possible options.
The funding for SBI that is requested will allow for deployment and evaluation of Block 1 of the technology portion of the program, called SBInet, to additional areas of the border in Arizona. It will also expand the integration and deployment of technology along the country’s Northern Border.
CBP’s budget authority declines by 2 percent in the request to $11.2 billion, with most of the cut in the SBI program.
Another of the bill payers for increases elsewhere in the DHS budget is the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, whose budget authority would dive 20 percent or $77.2 million to $305.8 million.
Nearly $117 million of DNDO’s research, development and operations is proposed to be cut. No mention of the troubled next-generation radiation portal monitor, called the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal, is mentioned in the DHS Budget in briefing documents. DNDO would get $61 million to acquire various detection systems that meet CBP, Coast Guard and TSA needs. That represents a $41 million increase from a year ago.
The National Protection and Preparedness Directorate would also see a hit to its budget if the request stands. DHS is proposing $2.4 billion for NPPD, a 3 percent decrease. Part of the decrease would be for the US-VISIT program, which is pegged to get $334.6 million in FY ’11, a $39.1 million cut from FY ’10. Accenture [ACN] is the prime contractor for US-VISIT.
The US-VISIT program had hoped for a decision by now on biometric air exit solution but DHS said yesterday that that effort is not being requested in FY ’11 as it is still trying to determine the appropriate exit solutions.
For cyber security, DHS is requesting $379 million for the National Cyber Security Division and another $10 million the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC). The NCSC received $5 million in FY ’10 and is still in the process of staffing up.