FBI director says tech investments are paying off

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Thursday highlighted the bureau's success in thwarting terrorist attacks, counterintelligence operations and confronting cyber crime in his budget presentation to the Senate Commerce, Justice and State Appropriations Subcommittee.

Mueller, who said that he personally was "focusing on long-term strategies to enhance our ability to collect, analyze and disseminate intelligence," said nearly half of the proposed FBI fiscal 2004 budget-or $250 million-supports counter-terrorism programs.

He also touted the FBI's progress in upgrading its technology, having completed the Trilogy network on March 28, which he said was three days ahead of schedule.

"Trilogy will change the FBI culture from paper to electronic," Mueller said. "It will replace redundant searches of stove-piped systems," enabling agents to search multiple data points, leads and suspects through a single portal.

Last year, however, the Senate Appropriations Committee heavily criticized the program. In the committee report accompanying the fiscal 2003 budget, it noted that the FBI had overspent its Trilogy budget by $138 million.

"This is not a surprise. The attempt to make up for 20 years of neglect in two years of frenzied spending was destined to fail," the report read. As to a $100 million reserve established by Congress, the report continued: "The FBI chose to squander this reserve. Now, when the funds are needed, none are available."

In his testimony, Mueller said the bureau had put many of the problems behind it. "The FBI has turned a corner in its history," he said. "With the support of Congress, we have been able to make dramatic and substantive changes."

After counterterrorism and counterintelligence, Mueller said that tackling cyber crime was the bureau's third priority area.

"Unfortunately, we are seeing explosive growth in cyber crime-both traditional crimes such as fraud and copyright infringement that have migrated online, and new crimes like computer intrusions and denial of service attacks," he said. Over the past six years, the number of such cases grew from 113 to 2,300.

The FBI's Cyber Program would "focus on identifying and neutralizing: 1) individuals or groups conducting computer intrusions and spreading malicious code; 2) intellectual property thieves; 3) Internet fraudsters; and 4) online predators that sexually exploit or endanger children," he said.

The agency has been consolidating those operations into a new Cyber Division at its headquarters, and its total budget request for fiscal 2004 is $234 million to protect against cyber-based attacks and high-tech crimes, including 77 new agents.

The total budget request was for $4.6 billion, including program changes totaling $513 million, including 2,346 new positions, including 503 special agents.

Those levels include funds to support 66 Joint Terrorist Task Forces, $82 million for technology upgrades, and $3 million for a new DNA testing system.