Additional Resources | Congress / Budget

Congress / Budget

February 25th, 2009

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to hold a closed-door meeting in Washington, DC, with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Feb. 26, beginning at 11 AM.

One likely item on the agenda: immigration reform. Other potential topics of interest to CHC members include the controversial border fence begun by the Bush administration (which Napolitano disparaged while she was governor of Arizona) and the growing spread of Mexican drug violence into Secretary Napolitano's home state.

February 19th, 2009

Will the stimulus work? Two well-known corporate players in the homeland-
security sector, Law Enforcement Associates (LEA) and Universal Detection Technology (UNDT), certainly reacted with optimism about the new opportunities ahead, thanks to the Obama administration's stimulus package.

In a Feb. 19 statement, LEA, a developer and manufacturer of electronic surveillance equipment, "lauded" the $4 billion in new law enforcement grant funding as a result of the bill. Those monies will be administered by the Department of Justice. package.

In a separate Feb. 19 statement, UNDT, a developer of early-warning bioterrorism and other monitoring technologies, noted the $2.8 billion budge "boost" that DHS will receive, also as part of the stimulus plan. package.

February 18th, 2009

The recently signed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R.1), aka the stimulus package, includes $4 billion in Department of Justice grant funding that will be used at the state, local and tribal levels, for such law enforcement efforts as hiring new police officers, stopping violence against women and fighting Internet crimes against children, according to the DoJ.

Specific DoJ programs that will be funded by H.R.1 include:

February 5th, 2009

The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed the Reducing Over-Classification Act of 2009, H.R. 553, sponsored by California Democrat Jane Harmon, which will "require the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop a strategy to prevent the over-classification of homeland security and other information and to promote the sharing of unclassified homeland security and other information."

One purpose of the bill is to provide unclassified versions of intelligence information to law enforcement agencies that work with DHS.

The bill pronounces that "excessive government secrecy stands in the way of a safer and more secure homeland," and that, since 9/11, "considerable confusion [exists] about what information can be shared with whom both internally at the Department of Homeland Security and with its external partners. This problem negatively impacts the dissemination of homeland security information to the Department’s State, local, tribal, and territorial homeland security and law enforcement partners, private sector customers, and the public."

February 2nd, 2009

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has formed the new Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, which will focus on government contracting fraud.

The new subcommittee will be chaired by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), a former prosecutor and state auditor.

January 22nd, 2009

If there is any single issue that will compete with the economy for the new administration's urgent attention, it is, of course, the threat of weapons of mass destruction being used, particularly by terrorists and other non-state actors.

That danger was underscored as the new Congress got down to business and the House Armed Services Committee began its Jan. 22 hearing with an examination of WMD proliferation and terrorism.

Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) opened the session with a grim recitation of the threats that have arisen in just the past eight years:
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January 13th, 2009

For fiscal year 2008, the Department of Defense reported "obligations" of $28.1 billion "for operations in defense of the homeland as part of Operation Noble Eagle," as the domestic, homeland defense component of the military's Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) is known.

Contrary to some popular opinion, there is indeed an official Global War on Terrorism, and the DoD is required to enumerate its financial obligations to it in monthly reports, the Supplemental and Cost of War Execution Reports, which are the basis of GWOT budget requests to Congress, and which the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has in turn been required to study and analyze on a quarterly basis since 2006.

While the cost of the GWOT overall has risen, "DOD’s reported obligations for Operation Noble Eagle have consistently decreased since fiscal year 2003, largely because of the completion of repairs to the Pentagon and upgrades in security at military installations that were onetime costs, as well as a reduction in combat air patrols and in the number of reserve personnel guarding government installations," according to the GAO.
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December 11th, 2008

When the Transportation Security Administration rescinded its ban on butane lighters onboard passenger aircraft, the result was not a smoke-'em-if-you-
got-'em exhale of relief, but it did alleviate passengers' anxieties.

Or did it?

The ban was in place from March 2005 until July 2007, when TSA notified Congress of its intent to suspend enforcement, saying butane lighters were not a significant threat.
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