House panel extends E-Verify, spends less on earmarks

The House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee on Monday unanimously approved a fiscal 2010 spending bill for the Homeland Security Department, including a provision that would extend for two years a program that enables employers to verify the legal status of their workers.

The bill, which passed by voice vote, would provide the department about $42.6 billion in discretionary spending for next fiscal year, which is about 6.5 percent more than current year spending and about 1 percent less than the Obama administration requested.

It also includes $110 million in earmark requests from House members, which is 5 percent less than the House earmarks included in the fiscal 2009 spending bill.

Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Price, D-N.C., said the goal is to produce an fiscal 2010 spending bill that has 50 percent fewer dollars for earmarks than the bill enacted in fiscal 2006.

"Drawing on our investigation and analysis of DHS, this mark offers the resources and direction the department needs for the coming fiscal year," Price said in a statement.

Notably, the bill would reauthorize the E-Verify program until 2011. E-Verify enables employers to verify the Social Security number and legal status of a worker online.

Price said the two-year extension was meant to "dovetail" with the "likely timing" for Congress to take up comprehensive legislation overhauling the nation's immigration laws. The administration requested a three-year extension of the program.

"I'm sure this is one item that we'll have further discussion of," Price said after the markup.

Groups calling for immigration reform have been counting on congressional leaders and President Obama to take up comprehensive legislation in the fall and enact it by early next year.

On other fronts, the bill includes a classified level of funding for the department to operate a controversial office that would coordinate the use of military and spy satellites for homeland security missions.

Price said the funding is less than the administration requested because the department has not satisfied congressional concerns about how the National Applications Office will operate.

But some lawmakers, including House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Norman Dicks, D-Wash., want to cut all funding for the office -- an issue that could be raised when the full Appropriations Committee marks up the Homeland Security spending bill on Friday.

Overall funding levels in the bill for Homeland Security agencies resemble the administration's request. For example, the bill would allocate Customs and Border Protection about $10 billion, which is $82 million less than requested.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement would receive $5.4 billion, about $30 million less than requested.

Notably, the bill directs ICE to spend $1.5 billion on finding and deporting illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes. That mandate continues a trend by appropriators over the last two years to target criminal illegal immigrants.

The Transportation Security Administration would receive about $7.7 billion and the Coast Guard about $10 billion.

But appropriators rejected the administration's attempt to reduce funding for the fire grant program, which helps fire departments across the country buy equipment and train personnel. The administration requested $170 million for the program; the bill would allocate $380 million.

The bill does cut $69 million from the administration's request for the department's administrative offices -- a move that Republicans requested.

In addition, the bill includes a one-year extension of the department's authority to regulate security at chemical facilities. That authority is set to expire this year.