First Homeland Security budget signed amid questions

President Bush on Wednesday signed the first-ever appropriations bill for the Homeland Security Department after criticism that it shortchanges states, localities and industry.

The appropriation for fiscal 2004 is $29.4 billion and includes various technology-related provisions. The total is $535.8 million, or 1.8 percent, more than enacted for the same purposes in fiscal 2003, which ended Tuesday. It also is $1 billion, or 3.7 percent, more than Bush sought.

"We're doing a lot here," Bush said. "This is a major step forward in our ongoing effort" to secure the domestic United States.

In the final bill, the House deferred to the lower Senate number on information technology investments, providing $185 million instead of $206 million. The total includes $72.5 million for IT services, $31 million for security activities and $100 million for wireless programs.

By Dec. 15, the department must report on the ability of officials to use the federal wireless program to communicate with state and local officials, and the department also must provide a complete inventory and plans for its IT structure.

Congress also cut funding for the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US VISIT) out of concern over planning and deployment of the system. The program will use biometric scanning to track the entry and exit of visitors to the United States.

The final US VISIT budget is $330 million, down from $350 million proposed by the House and $380 million proposed by the Senate. The conference report on the bill, H.R. 2555, directs Homeland Security to submit a privacy policy for protecting information in the system and monthly reports on the system's deployment. The first report is due to appropriators on Oct. 15.

The report also directs the Transportation Security Administration to evaluate technologies and devise plans for identification cards for transportation workers, but the law does not provide funding for the card project.

Congress provided $52 million for information and warning advisories, including $32.8 million for cybersecurity, as proposed by the Senate.

The final bill deleted Senate language requiring a report on state and local law enforcement officials' access to the State Department TIPOFF database of potential terrorists and a separate report on all data-mining programs at Homeland Security.

As the bill made its way through Congress, Democrats criticized it for not going far enough to aid ports and state and local "first responders" to emergencies. The Bush administration also has come under fire for a perceived lack of progress on security two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Zeichner Risk Assessment reported that the Homeland Security appropriation does not include any direct or significant monetary support for industry, despite requirements by federal and state governments that infrastructure owners assess risks and invest in more security.

The Zeichner report said the bill provides about $926.5 million for programs to develop critical infrastructures, equal to less than 4 percent of the fiscal 2004 appropriation. The critical infrastructure funding is mostly for long-term program development, covering office space, labor and other incidentals, Zeichner said.