Bush wins some, loses some in security funding game

Congress has proposed less funding than President Bush requested to hire intelligence officers for analyzing terrorists threats, but lawmakers agreed with Bush's funding proposals for activities to protect the nation's key assets and critical infrastructure.

Lawmakers are in the final stages of negotiating a $33 billion appropriations measure for the Homeland Security Department in fiscal 2005. The House passed its bill, H.R. 4567, by a vote of 400-5, and the Senate Appropriations panel unanimously approved its measure, S. 2537. After the Senate votes on its bill, the two chambers must negotiate a compromise.

One area requiring compromise is the funding level for the departmental division that focuses on information analysis and infrastructure protection.

The House bill recommended that the directorate do more with less. The chamber voted to allocate $132 million to employ 803 full-time employees, compared with Bush's request for an additional $30 million, minus 66 employees. The Senate voted to increase the allocation to $157 million -- $5 million less than Bush wanted.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said the panel approved less funding than Bush requested because the directorate would not meet its authorized hiring levels in 2005. "The committee notes with concern that as of May 2004, [the directorate] had filled only 291 of its 737 positions," the committee report on the bill said. The division hired contract employees and officials from other agencies to fill most of the remaining positions.

The House bill would provide $723 million for the directorate's intelligence analysis programs, and the Senate recommended $719 million. Bush proposed $702 million -- $8 million less than in the current fiscal year.

To protect the nation's cyber systems, both bills would match Bush's request for $67 million, a $2 million increase over the fiscal 2004 appropriation.

The bills also would fund the national infrastructure simulation and analysis center at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., as well as Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories. The centers provide "comprehensive modeling and simulation capabilities for the analysis of critical infrastructures, their interdependencies, complexities, and the consequences of an attack," the House committee report said. The Senate bill includes $23 million, compared with $16 million in the House measure -- the same as the president's request.

The directorate assesses vulnerabilities to the nation's critical infrastructures, both physical and cyber. It has formed partnerships with the private sector, which it estimates owns 85 percent of the nation's critical infrastructure, as a way to bolster security.

Some members of Congress have criticized the division for not moving quickly enough to establish security plans for chemical and nuclear facilities, metro transportation, cyber systems, and other critical infrastructures.

The directorate's outreach and partnership programs would receive $92 million in the Senate bill -- $20 million more than Bush requested and than the House approved. The additional funding in the Senate bill would be for the chief information officer to work with the private sector on departmental computer applications, network connectivity and critical data storage.