Lawmakers back full funding for data-sharing center

The Homeland Security Department's nerve center for analyzing and sharing information about potential terrorist threats would receive significant funding next year under pending legislation.

The House and Senate have proposed matching President Bush's request for $35 million to fund the Homeland Security Operations Center in fiscal 2005. The House passed its bill, H.R. 4567, on June 18 by a vote of 400-5; the Senate measure, S. 2537, is awaiting floor action.

The Washington-based center employs officials from various agencies like the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency, as well as a state and local representative. They analyze incoming intelligence data and share the relevant information with law enforcement officials. The center also issues the controversial color-coded advisory warnings that inform Americans about terrorist risks ranking from low (green) to severe (red).

The center houses the department's new information network, which connects federal, state and local officials and the private sector instantaneously during emergencies. The system can handle 10,000 outbound calls per minute, 30,000 simultaneous inbound calls through a hotline, and thousands of e-mails and faxes. The information is encrypted to ensure protection.

While lawmakers appear pleased with the one-year-old center's activities, lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee have expressed frustration with the department's budget request for next year. In the committee's report on the bill, House appropriators complained that the department funded individual programs, projects and activities-like the center-in multiple accounts, which "complicated" management and oversight efforts.

The House lawmakers voted to transfer $35 million for the center to a separate account under the information analysis and infrastructure protection directorate, which oversees the center, to hold it "accountable for spending."

The House and Senate committee reports on the legislation do not include language about the center's color-coded advisory system, despite previous complaints from Congress that the advisories provide too little information about possible terrorist attacks.

Senate appropriators did include language supporting the department's proposal to use the radio system of the National Weather Service (NWS) to broadcast threat warnings. The committee said it would like the department to use funding next year to grant more Americans access to the system. Currently, only 15 percent of Americans can access it.

The panel also said the department presently must negotiate with each radio and television broadcaster and other telecommunications providers to carry the alerts. The appropriators instructed the Homeland Security secretary to work with the FCC chairman on a legislative solution to the situation.

A working group of broadcast executives told the FCC and Homeland Security Department in May that the federal government should employ the national emergency-alert system to broadcast risk advisories. The FCC, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and NWS share oversight of the system.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told the group his department would work with them on the issue.