Partisans seek edge in homeland security funding

Senior Republicans are evaluating ways to increase funding for some accounts in the pending fiscal 2007 Homeland Security appropriations bill, while Democrats appear to be mounting an offensive to portray the White House and GOP as weak on domestic security heading into the fall elections.

Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said Monday he is in discussions with other lawmakers to increase funding for some homeland security accounts, as long as doing so does not bust the Senate's spending cap for the bill.

"They're people who have approached me with ideas for how they could get more money into certain accounts, and I'm listening to their theories," Gregg told CongressDaily. "I don't want to get specific as to how they would pay for that because it's not fair to them."

Gregg said he is particularly interested in providing more funding for the Coast Guard, border security, port security and weapons of mass destruction defense.

His initiative came to light as Senate Democrats appeared ready to use the $31.7 billion spending bill, being debated on the floor this week, as a battleground to make Republicans look weak.

In the aftermath of last week's foiled New York City tunnel bomb plot and the one-year anniversary of the London transit bombings, Democrats are preparing a multi-pronged attack, including amendments to add funds for ports, railways, transit systems and first-responders.

Senate Appropriations ranking member Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., for example, said he will offer an amendment to add $635 million for port security. Byrd is also ranking member on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.

A similar effort on the fiscal 2006 war and hurricane relief supplemental was blocked as Bush and GOP leaders forced appropriators to live within tight limits. But Democrats are seeking to make the most of their few remaining opportunities to force difficult floor votes on budget matters before the elections.

Gregg isn't buying into the strategy.

"I don't really think that anybody's getting to the right of anybody around here," he said. "I think most people are just trying to do a good job of addressing what is a very fundamental problem which is that, so far, the Department of Homeland Security has had serious management and structural problems and it needs resources in some core areas such as border security and port security and weapons of mass destruction," Gregg added.

Gregg said the Bush administration sent a flawed budget to Congress because it contained a proposal to raise more than $1.2 billion in new fees by increasing the cost of airline travel.

As a result, he said, both Republicans and Democrats have been grappling with ways to boost funding for critical accounts while making up for the $1.2 billion shortfall.

But Gregg argued that despite the constraints, his bill still exceeds the White House request by $715.3 million and the fiscal 2006 Homeland Security budget by nearly $1.5 billion.

For his part, Byrd faulted the bill Monday for not doing enough to inspect cargo at seaports and rail border crossings. His amendment would add $251 million for Customs and Border Protection to hire additional officers and buy inspection equipment.

It also would add another $171 million for the Coast Guard's Deepwater program, in part to make up for ships deployed in support of the Iraq war and to buy two additional patrol boats and aircraft. In addition, Byrd's amendment would outfit 30 additional aircraft with weapons on top of 36 that are funded in the underlying bill.

Gregg suggested he might also try to pad the Coast Guard's budget in future emergency spending bills.

Senior Republicans like Gregg are also increasingly frustrated with the department's financial management, especially with the Federal Protective Service, which guards federal buildings.

Fee collections have fallen so far behind that the agency now faces a shutdown unless Congress approves a June 30 request to transfer $42.4 million from unspent funds elsewhere in the department, including $20 million from science and technology accounts such as explosives countermeasures.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said the agency was "working aggressively" to resolve the situation. But Gregg said "they don't have any idea how they're going to correct" the problem so it does not occur again.