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R&D at DHS Slated for 13.8% Increase
With Congressional approval, the Department of Homeland Security's principal research unit could receive a substantial increase in its fiscal year 2005 budget. The Administration's FY05 request for the Science and Technology Directorate is $1.039 billion -- 13.8 percent higher than the FY04 appropriation level of $913 million.
The agency's Budget in Brief, released on Monday, only highlights $77 million of the $119 million increase requested for the directorate's Research, Development, Acquisition and Operations line item.
The most significant item is the additional $65 million requested for the Bio-Surveillance Program Initiative. Currently, the program receives $53 million, much of which provides support for BioWatch, a bio-aerosol warning for most of the nation’s metropolitan areas. The new funds would support research and development (R&D) for an integrated, real-time, human-animal-plant surveillance system.
A portion of the directorate's increase also would support an acceleration of R&D on next-generation environmental monitoring systems. The Budget in Brief reports new classes of detectors, which can identify bio-agents in two minutes or less with significantly low false alarm rates, will make ‘detect-to-protect’ possible for key facilities.
Another new initiative proposed is an integrated attack warning and assessment system known as BWICS (BioWarning and Incident Characterization System). The BWICS pilot will integrate real-time bio-surveillance and environmental monitoring data with plume hazard predictions, epidemiological forecasts, population and critical infrastructure databases, and other available resources in two of the highest threatened cities.
A $12.9 million increase is proposed for the $20 million Plum Island Animal Disease Center. According to the Budget in Brief, the new funds would be used to address the "highest priority deficiencies" on the island as outlined in the GAO's report, Combating Terrorism – Actions Needed to Improve Security at Plum Island Animal Disease Center; Report Number GAO-03-847.
The DHS Budget in Brief is available at: http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/FY_2005_BIB_4.pdf