Mushrooming homeland security budgets face Hill scrutiny

Months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Congress remains eager to give the Bush administration billions of extra dollars to make the nation more secure within its borders. But some members are beginning to wonder how it is being spent.

Shortly after the attacks, Congress approved a $40 billion emergency supplemental for the war on terrorism and to quickly address homeland defense gaps--paid out in three portions over several months. The administration has returned to Congress in recent weeks to seek another $27 billion emergency supplemental for the current fiscal year. In addition, the president has requested $38 billion in homeland defense spending for fiscal 2003.

Yet in a Senate Appropriation Committee hearing earlier this week, Defense Department Comptroller Dov Zakheim again said he could not identify how the original $40 billion supplemental has been spent. Zakheim promised to offer some numbers by the end of the week.

"I think the [Senate Appropriations Committee] scrutiny [of homeland security spending] is self-evident," said a committee spokesman, noting the recent string of hearings on the subject. "There have been some real questions raised." Senate Appropriations Chairman Byrd has noted that the Justice Department has not advertised the grants it was given to allocate to local police. Also, 80 percent of local health departments have not received their designated funding, he said.

The high-tech industry is watching to see how the new funding "trickles down" to private sector opportunities, an industry source said. Homeland security funding is more difficult to capture because it cuts "horizontally" across so many agencies, he said.

Congress soon will begin work on the president's fiscal 2003 budget request. Homeland security has caused several agency budget requests for next year to swell.

Of the nearly $38 billion earmarked for homeland security in the FY03 request, the Defense Department would get 22 percent; Transportation Department, 20 percent; Justice Department, 19 percent; HHS, 12 percent; Federal Emergency Management Agency, 9 percent; Treasury Department, 8 percent; Energy Department, 3 percent, states and international, 2 percent; Agriculture Department, 1 percent; and all others 4 percent, according to the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association.

Some areas of homeland security spending, according to GEIA, would include $362 million for an entry-exit visa system at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and, at the FBI, $21 million for the National Infrastructure Protection and Computer Intrusion Program and $48 million for the Information Assurance Program. Other programs include $744 million for northern border security and $684 million for maritime security, both at the Customs Service.

The Bush FY03 request also would provide $4.8 billion to the Transportation Security Administration created in November, which focuses largely on commercial aviation security, and $1.2 billion for U.S. Coast Guard ports, waterways and coastal security. FEMA would receive $3.6 billion for state and local "readiness and training."

Cybersecurity initiatives would include $30 million for a defense cyber warning intelligence network, $5 million for General Services Administration's government Intranet called GovNet, and $125 million for the FBI National Infrastructure Protection Center.

At the Defense Department alone, the Bush budget is proposing $26.4 billion for information technology and national security systems in FY03, including $4.6 billion for development modernization and $13.3 billion to maintain current services. That is a significant increase from the $23.7 billion for IT and national security systems in the current fiscal year, including $3.7 billion for modernization and $11.9 billion to maintain current systems.

The fiscal 2002 emergency supplemental currently under debate in Congress would boost the amount for homeland security to $5.8 billion, $522 million above the president's request.

But the House Appropriations Committee--which took up the bill Thursday--is proposing to cut the Transportation Security Administration's supplemental appropriation by $550 million to $3.85 billion. The committee criticized the new agency for failing to fully justify its budget request.

Teri Rucker contributed to this report.