With money in hand, DHS proceeds with big-ticket programs

The Homeland Security Department plans to spend about $8.6 billion in fiscal 2005 on programs that have a price tag of $50 million or more, the department's chief financial officer said Tuesday.

Andrew Maner, who became chief financial officer last January, outlined the department's recently approved fiscal 2005 budget during a briefing in Washington. Maner said DHS has $40.7 billion in total funding for the fiscal year, of which $28.9 billion is allotted for discretionary spending.

He said the department is pursuing 44 projects with an estimated life-cycle acquisition cost of at least $50 million.

According to Maner, 20 of those projects are within the Border and Transportation Security directorate; eight are within the Coast Guard; seven are departmentwide; four are within the Citizenship and Immigration Services bureau; four are in the Emergency Preparedness and Response directorate; and one is within the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection directorate.

The fiscal 2005 budget includes $1.8 billion more in discretionary funds than the previous year, Maner said. "This is a very, very solid and robust budget growth by any standard," he said.

"I think '05 is certainly going to be a year where our partners in the private sector are going to be playing a huge role," he added.

President Bush signed the budget into law Monday. DHS also released a fact sheet Monday outlining its spending programs.

The budget includes about $420 million for border and port security, including the expansion of pre-screening cargo containers in high-risk areas and the detection of individuals attempting to illegally enter the country. About $340 million was allocated to expand US-VISIT in 2005, a program to track foreign visitors entering and exiting the United States.

The Coast Guard's budget is up to $6.3 billion for the fiscal year, a 9 percent increase over the previous year.

About $2.5 billion will be available for Project BioShield in 2005, particularly for the development and pre-purchase of necessary medical countermeasures against weapons of mass destruction, and improved bio-surveillance by expanding air monitoring for biological agents in high-threat cities and other potential targets such as stadiums and transit systems, DHS said.

The Transportation Security Administration received $5.1 billion, a $679 million increase over 2004.

Additionally, the budget provides a total of $4 billion for state and local assistance programs; $3.6 billion for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau; $3.1 billion for the Emergency Preparedness and Response directorate; $1.1 billion for the Science and Technology directorate; and $894 million for the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection directorate.