Copyright 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.
December 20, 2002
On November 25, after months of partisan debate over personnel rules, President Bush signed legislation (P.L. 107-296) establishing a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with the primary mission of preventing terrorist attacks within the United States.
The new DHS umbrella will bring together nearly 170,000 federal employees and up to $35 billion in annual budgetary resources in the largest reorganization of the federal government since the 1940s.
The new department will have significant impacts in science and technology (S&T) related to homeland security. DHS will have its own S&T policy infrastructure as well as a significant research and development (R&D) portfolio, drawing on programs transferred from other agencies, as well as newly created programs.
The final version of the DHS bill creates an Under Secretary for Science and Technology, a provision absent from the Bush Administration's original proposal, to serve as the apex of a new S&T infrastructure. The under secretary, who will report directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security, will be in charge of the Directorate of Science and Technology, one of four broad directorates in the new department. This directorate will have responsibility for setting R&D goals and priorities, coordinating homeland security R&D throughout the federal government, funding its own R&D programs, and facilitating the transfer and deployment of technologies for homeland security.
The under secretary will act as scientific and technical adviser to the secretary and will convene a Homeland Security Advisory Committee consisting of first responders, citizen groups, researchers, engineers, and businesses to provide S&T advice. DHS will create a new federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), the Homeland Security Institute, to act as a think tank for risk analyses, simulations of threat scenarios, analyses of possible countermeasures, and strategic plans for counterterrorism technology development.
The S&T directorate will also have an Office for National Laboratories to coordinate DHS interactions with Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories that have expertise in homeland security. The office will have the authority to establish a semi-independent DHS headquarters laboratory within an existing federal laboratory, national lab, or FFRDC.
The homeland security legislation directs DHS to establish one or more university-based centers for homeland security R&D, and includes 15 detailed criteria for where to locate them. It has been widely reported that the criteria were crafted by House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX) in order to favor Texas A&M University.
The S&T directorate will house a new research agency named the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), modeled on the existing Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the Department of Defense (DOD). HSARPA will award competitive, merit-reviewed grants along the entire spectrum of R&D from basic research all the way to prototyping new technology products. The legislation authorizes $500 million in fiscal year (FY) 2003 for the agency, but the actual appropriation will have to be decided as part of the FY 2003 budget process.
In addition to HSARPA, DHS will fold in existing R&D programs from the Departments of Energy (DOE), Agriculture (USDA), and Transportation (DOT). Precise R&D funding figures are not yet available because of the vague parameters of the final legislation, and because the FY 2003 budget process was left unfinished by the 107th Congress. While the original Bush Administration homeland security proposal suggested that DHS would have a $3.4 billion R&D portfolio, the final legislation suggests a portfolio of up to $800 million (see table). In contrast to the original concept, the final legislation keeps federal bioterrorism R&D programs, which could total as much as $2 billion in FY 2003, within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) instead of transferring them to DHS. The Homeland Security Secretary would, however, have joint authority with the HHS Secretary to set priorities for these programs.
| R&D Program | FY 2003 Estimate |
|
DOE National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center |
20 |
| Other DOE programs | 100 |
| HSARPA (new) | 500 |
| USDA Plum Island Animal Disease Center | 25 |
| DOT Transportation Security Administration R&D |
130 |
| DOT Coast Guard R&D | 24 |
| Total DHS R&D 799 | ______ 799 |
AAAS estimates of R&D based on DHS legislation, and OMB and agency data. Preliminary figures based on FY 2003 request and authorization levels. Updated 11/22/02.
Although the DHS will have enormous impacts on the federal government and especially on goods and travelers crossing U.S. borders, the impact on scientists and engineers is minimal. Few federal scientists and engineers will be affected except a small number of DOT, USDA, or DOE contractor employees. The new priority-setting powers of DHS, however, mean that NIH bioterrorism research priorities will be set with strong input from the new department.
Because the 107th Congress failed to complete the FY 2003 budget, all domestic programs are currently operating at FY 2002 funding levels. As a consequence, there is no money available to create new programs such as HSARPA unless funds can be shifted from existing programs. Congress hopes to finish work on FY 2003 appropriations in January, before DHS formally comes into existence 60 days after enactment of the legislation, but it will be difficult to meet this goal. It may be months, then, before the new department has the necessary resources to begin organizing its S&T infrastructure. •••
Kei Koizumi, director of the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program, contributed to this article. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
Copyright 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved. |