Special Federal Budget Issue: Department of Homeland Security

The FY 2006 discretionary budget request for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is $34.15 billion, 6.6 percent above the comparable enacted FY 2005 appropriation. In FY06, DHS seeks to consolidate the research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) activities within the DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate. This consolidation, at a one-time cost of $127 million, would bring the scientific and engineering personnel and other RDT&E resources of the department under a single accountable authority.

The FY06 budget requests $1.4 billion (22.7 percent increase) for the S&T Directorate to provide leadership for directing, funding and conducting RDT&E and procurement of technology and systems to prevent the importation of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and related weapons and material to protect against and respond to terrorist threats.

New initiatives for FY06:

• National Bio and Agrodefense Facility - $23 million to extend the capabilities of the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center to support RDT&E to strengthen the nation's ability to address high consequence biological threats.
• Low Volatility Warning System - $20 million to develop a protection-mode capability to detect chemical threat agents upon release in specific environments.
• Rad/Nuc Countermeasures Test and Evaluation Complex - $9 million for facilities and capabilities to validate the performance of systems under development, and already deployed, to protect the U.S. from the threat of a terrorist radiological or nuclear attack.
• Counter-MAN Portable Air Defense Systems - $49 million (plus $61 million base funding) to initiate Phase III to include delivery and installation of pre-production C-MANPADS equipment on commercially operated aircraft by U.S. cargo carriers. In FY06, 20 operational aircraft will be modified and 16 C-MANPADS systems will be procured to support reliability and test data collection, as well as critical technology protection methods.
• Research and Development (R&D) Consolidation - $127.5 million to integrate the RDT&E activities of TSA, USCG, CBP, and IAIP with those conducted within DHS's S&T Directorate. The directorate anticipates the development and expansion of collaborative relationships to foster and leverage an environment of collective capabilities, maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of the department's RDT&E capacity.
• Homeland Secure Data Network (HSDN) - $300,000 to address requirements for secure, classified, computer-to-computer connectivity. (A total of $37 million is requested for the HSDN; however, the directorate's portion of this project requires $300,000).

The requested FY06 funding levels under theResearch & Technology area of the S&T Directorate are divided into three portfolios, including countermeasures, security components and cross-cutting divisions.

The Association of American Universities (AAU) reports requested funding levels for research activities within the countermeasures portfolio include:

• Biological Countermeasures - $362.3 million ($3 million decrease) to provide the understanding, technologies, and systems needed to address possible biological attacks on this nation's population, agriculture or infrastructure.
• Chemical Countermeasures - $102 million (9.25 percent increase) to enhance and coordinate the nation’s capability to address chemical threat attacks through innovative research, development, and transition of capabilities.
• Explosives Countermeasures - $14.7 million (25.4 percent decrease) to develop technical capabilities to address the use of explosives and other conventional means in terrorist attacks against the population, mass transit, civil aviation, and critical infrastructure without impeding flow of commerce.
• Radiological and Nuclear Countermeasures/Domestic Nuclear Detection Office - $246.4 million (100 percent increase) to counter the threat of radiological and nuclear terrorism by developing and transitioning advanced, integrated systems and capabilities to operational end users.

Requested funding levels for research activities within the security component portfolio, according to AAU, include:

• Critical Infrastructure Protection - $20.8 million (23 percent decrease) to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure and key resources from acts of terrorism, natural disasters, or other emergencies by developing and deploying tools to anticipate, identify, and analyze risks, and systems to reduce those risks and the consequences of an event.
• Cyber Security - $16.7 million (9.4 percent decrease) for research, development, testing, and evaluation endeavors to secure the nation's critical information infrastructure, through coordinated efforts that will improve the security of the existing cyber infrastructure, and provide a foundation for a more secure infrastructure.
• Threat and Vulnerability, Testing and Assessment - $47 million (28.6 percent decrease) to develop capabilities that enable the creation, application and dissemination of knowledge to address terrorist activities and restore the nation's operational capabilities.

AAU also reports the following funding levels for research activities within the cross-cutting portfolio:

• University & Fellowship Programs - $63.6 million (9.1 percent decrease)to stimulate, coordinate, leverage, and utilize the unique intellectual capital in the academic community to address current and future homeland security challenges, and educate and inspire the next generation homeland security workforce.
• Standards - $35.5 million (10.6 percent decrease) to develop and coordinate the adoption of national standards and appropriate evaluation methods to meet homeland security mission needs.
• Emerging Threats - $10.5 million (2.3 percent decrease) to anticipate and define potential threats arising from new scientific and technological advances, terrorist use of existing capabilities in new or unexpected manners, and self-assessments of science and technology research activities and jump-start countermeasures capability development.
• Rapid Prototyping - $20.9 million (72.5 percent decrease) to accelerate deployment of advanced technologies to address urgent user requirements.