Appropriators skeptical of promised secure border initiative

Senior members of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee said Thursday they are worried that a massive Homeland Security Department program for border security lacks oversight and might fail like past initiatives.

Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., told Homeland Security officials during a hearing that he wants to see a comprehensive strategic plan for the department's $1.3 billion Secure Border Initiative.

"We've been at this juncture before," Rogers said. "We have been presented with expensive proposals for elaborate border technology that have eventually proven to be ineffective and wasteful systems, such as the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System and America's Shield Initiative. ... When presented with questions like this, we apply a simple formula: no plan equals no money."

Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn., added, "I'm worried that DHS thinks that the solution is to hire a private technology company to run the SBI, and then sit back and watch."

The Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System and America's Shield Initiative were both intended to deliver state-of-the-art surveillance technology to the borders. But the Homeland Security Department's inspector general reported last summer that much of the equipment either was not installed or did not work.

Homeland Security scrapped those two programs last fall and announced the Secure Border Initiative.

Greg Giddens, the department's SBI program manager, told the subcommittee that a strategic plan for SBI will be submitted by the end of April.

Giddens said, however, that the first deadline was missed for issuing a request for proposals for SBInet, which is the part of the program for installing and integrating border technology. The request was expected March 31.

Giddens declined to tell reporters after the hearing when the solicitation would be released. He also declined to discuss details of the strategic plan.

Giddens told the subcommittee the department still plans to award a contract for SBInet in September. He added he could not publicly discuss details of the solicitation before it is released, but said his program office has decided to hire an independent company to help determine what the appropriate staffing level should be for contract oversight.

Giddens said SBI will differ from past programs in that it will integrate both border security efforts and interior enforcement initiatives to locate illegal aliens. A temporary guestworker program for migrants who want to come to the United States will be a "critical part" of SBI, Giddens added.