Homeland tech chief to specify areas for more research

The official in charge of science and technology at the Homeland Security Department has joined the State and Defense departments in an effort that will lead to an upcoming announcement on as many as 40 homeland security "areas of interest," such as radiation and biological detectors.

Industry, universities and others typically respond to these announcements with proposed solutions, and an evaluation team chooses which proposal to fund.

The announcement is dependent upon congressional approval of a reprogramming request, expected when Congress returns from recess, Charles McQueary said. The requested reprogramming would move more than $200 million from a fiscal 2003 Defense Department appropriation of $420 million for biological countermeasures and put it in the radiological and chemical areas as well as some systems engineering areas.

McQueary, Homeland Security undersecretary for science and technology, also said his office is looking for new technologies, but he wants researchers and companies to explain how it fits with the larger system of security for the nation.

He said the office has not yet acquired a technology, and his directorate will move in the next few weeks to an as-yet undetermined site with more space to evaluate technologies. Regardless of the location, he said his preference is "when you have something of interest, to go and see things."

"If that's not workable, then have presentations," he said. "Show me some results, don't show me pictures. I like to see results."

"What I'm saying to people that I talk to both within the labs as well as in industry is the following: This issue of homeland security is a very large systems engineering problem, it's a very complex one, and we in Washington don't have all the intellectual capacity to determine exactly what needs to be done," McQueary said in an interview last week with National Journal's Technology Daily.

"What we need are the very best and brightest minds [working on] the problem, so when people have a potential solution ... I'm asking them and will continue to ask that people come in ... [and] describe to me how it would fit in the larger systems context," McQueary said. "We need people thinking about the total systems solution, and not so much about just one little element that they would like to sell to us."

On cybersecurity, his office will play a supporting role to the information analysis and infrastructure protection directorate, he said. That fits with his directorate's mandate not to do anything that is already being done elsewhere. "Our job is to try and fill holes," he said.

McQueary also said he met last week with Paul McHale, Defense assistant secretary responsible for homeland defense. The two agreed to establish working relationships "down in the organization" as well as meet on a quarterly basis to review the relationship, he said.

"I think the important thing is, if they're doing it, we should be using it, and if we're doing it, I'm sure they won't want to have overlap either," he said.