Dems to Offer Amendments to Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Bill
Media Advisory from the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
Media Advisory from the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
For Immediate Release - July 21, 2003
Contact: Erik Floden, 202.546.0795 ×110 or efloden@armscontrolcenter.org
Today at 1:30 pm, the Senate is scheduled to begin consideration of HR 2555, the Homeland Security Appropriations bill. Senate Democrats are expected to offer several amendments that would add funding for various programs including port security and emergency responders. While the Democrats’ amendments are not expected to pass, it is their symbolic value that Democrats crave. Details of the amendments are not yet publicly available. The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation will continue to follow the debate and provide updates and analysis as further details become available.
Ever since consideration of the FY 2003 omnibus spending bill last January, Democrats have attempted to add money for homeland security programs to distinguish themselves from their Republican colleagues. Democrats want the public to believe they are willing to spend whatever is necessary to prevent terrorist attacks against Americans while their frugal Republican colleagues refuse to do so. Republicans have argued that House and Senate Democrats’ attempts to add homeland security money are frivolous and that the Department has the resources it needs. It is not yet clear whether the Democrats strategy will succeed and be used as a campaign issue next year.
Overview of the Bill
The Senate Appropriations committee unanimously agreed to the $29.3 billion bill on July 10. The bill provides $28.5 billion in discretionary spending in fiscal year 2004, and if the President’s Project Bioshield funding request is disregarded, the Senate’s bill is a $1 billion increase over the President’s request (funding for Bioshield was not included in the Senate version as it was in the House).
Highlights of Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2004:
* $3.6 billion for first responders and emergency personnel, including;
- $1.75 billion for the state and local basic formula grants;
- $500 million for State and local law enforcement terrorism prevention grants;
- $750 million for high-threat urban area discretionary grants, and;
- $750 million for firefighter assistance grants
* $150 million for port security;
* $0 for Project Bioshield (the House provided $890 million for FY04);
* $4.9 billion for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, including:
- $15.3 million for the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism;
- $61.8 million for the Container Security Initiative;
- $63.8 million for deployment of radiation detection systems, mobile vehicle and cargo inspection systems, and isotope identifiers at land and sea ports
* $886 million for the Science and Technology Directorate including:
- $244,000 for biological countermeasures;
- $131,000 nuclear and radiological countermeasures;
- $55,000 for Chemical countermeasures;
- $98,000 for threat and vulnerability, testing and assessment;
Reporting Requirements
Unlikely to be discussed on the Senate floor this week, but nonetheless a very important aspect of the House and Senate’s homeland security legislation, are the numerous reporting requirements—61 by our count— in the House and Senate bills. The reporting requirements would reveal more details about the steps the administration is taking to improve preparedness against terrorism. These reporting requirements are a direct consequence of the lack of information that accompanied the President’s fiscal year 2004 budget request and the difficulty Members of Congress and their staffs have had in getting information from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Whenever Congress inserts itself into the bureaucratic process in this manner the risk is that the administration will spend more time reporting to the Hill and fighting the reporting requirements, than preventing terrorist attacks. In this instance Congress has taken the correct steps to ensure that the public is informed of the administration’s efforts to protect America. The best approach for the administration would be to break with its tendency to conceal and fight efforts by the public to gain more information, and share with Congress information that enables them to help the Department to execute effective homeland security programs.
A table describing the reporting requirements and when they are due to Congress can be viewed at: http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/terrorism/ib/reportingrequirements.html
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