Homeland Security bureau readies request for more money

The Homeland Security Department's largest investigative arm plans to submit a request by the end of this week for more money to get through the remainder of the fiscal year, its director said Thursday.

Michael Garcia, chief of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security that he plans to make the request by Friday.

Garcia did not say how much he would request. Former DHS Deputy Secretary James Loy told the subcommittee before he resigned that ICE would need about $280 million to finish out the year.

ICE's financial problems have resulted in a hiring freeze since last March and severe spending restrictions. In September, the bureau ordered its offices to refrain from nonessential spending such as travel, temporary duty assignments, equipment and supply purchases, and permanent change-of-station moves.

Current and former DHS employees testified Wednesday that the situation has become so bad that the bureau should be dismantled or merged with the department's Customs and Border Protection Bureau.

Garcia said he anticipates the new reprogramming request will fix ICE's budget baseline. He also said he plans to hire a chief financial officer by the end of March. The bureau has never had a CFO.

Loy said ICE's budget problems would be allieviated through the fiscal 2006 budget request. The Bush administration is seeking a larger increase for ICE than any other Homeland Security agency. Under the proposed 2006 budget, ICE would get about $4.4 billion, a 13.4 percent increase over 2005.

"I believe the structural problems will be solved with the '06 budget that has come forward," Loy said. "I am still concerned that we will have to live through a very difficult '05."

Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said financial management problems at ICE are "intolerable and frustrating." He credited Garcia and ICE with "impressive achievements," but added the subcommittee wanted to know when and how the financial problems would be fixed.

"Unfortunately, it is ICE's financial straits that make headlines, and it is easy to understand why," Rogers said. "When an agency with over 6,000 investigators and 3,000 enforcement officers freezes hiring, training and bonuses, stops replacing vehicles, cuts back dramatically on travel, and releases from detention individuals who add to the huge population of undocumented aliens in this country, that is news."

Rogers added: "The bottom line is that we want results, not excuses."