Supplemental takes aim at homeland security decisions

Congress is reining in the Homeland Security Department through provisions in the fiscal 2005 emergency supplemental spending bill that withhold $5 million from its chief information officer and tighten restrictions on spending.

House and Senate appropriators said the department's CIO, contrary to federal law, failed to notify them before initiating information technology projects, according to language in the report accompanying the supplemental conference report.

In response, the lawmakers said $5 million in obligated fiscal 2005 funds will be withheld from the CIO's office salaries and expenses until they receive an expenditure plan for the department's IT projects. They also demanded a list of every legacy IT system in operation, its status and plans for continued operation or termination.

The House on Thursday passed the $82 billion supplemental on a 368-58 vote. The Senate is expected to approve the bill next week and send it to President Bush for his signature.

The measure would provide nearly $76 billion for military operations, more than $4 billion in foreign assistance, $907 million for tsunami relief, and $1.2 billion for domestic security and border protection, as well as mandate tougher standards for drivers' licenses and asylum-seekers.

Appropriators also threatened to eliminate a flexible, departmentwide account because Homeland Security officials used it for projects not approved by Congress.

"While the [working capital fund] can be a useful management tool, it will only exist if the rules detailed in the annual appropriations acts and reports are strictly adhered to," they wrote.

Homeland Security Chief Financial Officer Andrew Maner said Wednesday the congressional critics have a point. "I can't say that I blame them," he said. "On a couple of incidents, we fell down. We should be held accountable. We appreciate that we have the fund."

The department told Congress it would use an estimated $30 million from its capital working fund for the homeland secure data network -- an IT project to connect emergency responders across the federal government and down to the state and local level, according to an aide for Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky.

The department also used the working fund to pay for integrating the department's 22 different systems for payroll, software, networks, among other systems. But the Senate had specifically denied funding for the so-called I-Staff through the working fund, according to the aide.

The report language said the I-Staff project had been removed from the working fund, but fiscal 2005 funds are currently obligated for it. Appropriators said the department could not fund the data network nor the I-Staff program until they receive a report on all funds obligated for the initiatives from the previous two years.