Highlights
- Earlier this week, Congress finalized an FY 2005 budget for the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that would give the new department
an R&D portfolio of $1.2 billion, up $206 million or 19.9 percent
after an even larger increase the year before (see Table).
- Congress added
funds to the DHS request for university programs, interoperable communications,
shipping container security, and air cargo security technologies. Compared
to FY 2004, the largest DHS R&D increase goes to biological countermeasures,
including funds for construction of a new biodefense
laboratory.
- In addition to
the R&D portfolio, DHS has already received $885 million in FY 2004
and $2.5 billion in FY 2005 for Project BioShield,
a procurement program to purchase biodefense
countermeasures that is designed to encourage private-sector biodefense
R&D investments. An authorization law establishing program guidelines
was signed into law in July.
On October 11,
shortly before leaving Washington
to hit the campaign trail, the Senate gave final approval to the conference
report (final version) of a $32 billion Homeland Security (HS) appropriations
bill (HR 4567) that will provide a substantial increase for R&D
in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The House had given final
approval a few days earlier, and President Bush is expected to sign
the bill into law this week. While Congress left most of the FY 2005
budget unfinished, DHS joins the Department of Defense (DOD) as the
only two R&D funding agencies to receive their final FY 2005 budgets.
The DHS R&D
Portfolio in FY 2005
The final HS bill provides $1.2 billion for DHS R&D in FY 2005,
a dramatic increase of $206 million or 19.9 percent over FY 2004 following
an even larger $300 million increase the previous year. DHS itself requested
$1.1 billion, but Congress added $102 million to the request at a time
when other agencies would count themselves lucky to see their R&D
budgets keep pace with inflation (see Table).
The nearly 20 percent increase for DHS is certain
to be the largest percentage increase of an agency’s R&D portfolio
in FY 2005. The final bill closely follows earlier House and Senate
versions of the bill, both of which also provided $1.2 billion for DHS
R&D. (For more on House and Senate appropriations for DHS R&D,
see the June 22 AAAS R&D Funding Update.
For more on the DHS R&D request for FY 2005, see the AAAS
R&D Funding Update on DHS in the President’s request).
R&D in the Directorate of Science and Technology
Most DHS R&D programs have their home in the
Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T), one of five broad directorates
in the new department. This Directorate has responsibility for setting
homeland-security R&D goals and priorities, coordinating homeland
security R&D throughout the federal government, funding homeland
security R&D, facilitating the transfer and deployment of technologies
for homeland security, and advising the DHS Secretary on all scientific
and technical matters.
In FY 2005, the
S&T Directorate will fund more than 80 percent of all DHS R&D
(see Table and Figure 1). Nearly all of the $1.1 billion total S&T
Directorate budget will go toward R&D activities, except for $69
million in administrative and other overhead costs.
Figure
1. (click on
the image to view or download a color full-size PDF version of the chart)
Congress added $60 million
to the DHS request for S&T’s R&D programs.
Congress added to the request for four specific program areas. Congress provided $70 million for University Programs
and Fellowship Programs, a boost of $40 million over the request
and the same amount as last year. This program funds several university-based
centers of excellence and is a funding source dedicated exclusively
to funding university-based research. The Department expects to designate
several university-based centers for homeland security in FY 2005, adding
to the three centers that have already been announced (one on threat
assessments and two on agro-terrorism). Universities will not be limited
to just $70 million; they will also be able to compete for R&D funds
in the other program areas. This program also funds fellowships that
will bring scientists and engineers from academia and private industry
to work within the DHS for a year or two, and funds graduate fellowships
for students seeking careers in technical areas related to homeland
security. Congress also added $10 million in new funds for the Safety
Act (included in “Other” in the Table),
funds that would be used to certify products as “qualified homeland
security technologies” and thus protected from potential liability,
in the hopes of encouraging their rapid deployment. Congress added $21
million in new funds for Interoperability in Communications (see “Other”
in the Table) to fund R&D in next-generation
communications technologies for public safety wireless communications
interoperability. Finally, the there are $10 million in new funds for
a container security initiative (included in “Conventional Missions”
in the Table) to develop new technologies
for detecting biological, chemical, radiological, explosive, or nuclear
materials in shipping containers.
The largest R&D increase goes to biological countermeasures with
an appropriation of $363 million, nearly double last year’s funding.
In addition, there was a separate $87 million last year and $35 million
in FY 2005 for construction of a new laboratory named the National Biodefense
Analysis and Countermeasures
Center in Fort
Detrick, Maryland.
Adding in this biodefense laboratory, it becomes
clear that biological threats are the top priority in the DHS R&D
portfolio (see Figure 1), accounting for nearly a third of all DHS R&D.
Within biological countermeasures, Congress agreed to the request of
$65 million in new funds for a total of $118 million for a BioSurveillance
initiative to develop an integrated, real-time, human-animal-plant surveillance
system. The new funds go to the BioWatch program,
which has been developing and testing biological detection technologies
in major U.S.
cities through a network of automated sample collectors.
In other areas, Congress stuck closely
to the request but moved some funds to new accounts. DHS will spend $61 million for R&D on
antimissile devices for commercial aircraft, in the hopes of developing
and prototyping antimissile devices that can be fitted on airplanes
(up from $60 million last year, funded through the Critical Infrastructure
program). These devices would counter the potential threat from MANPADS
(man-portable air defense systems), shoulder-fired missiles that have
been used (unsuccessfully so far) against passenger aircraft. Congress
also agreed to the request to provide $76 million for rapid prototyping
activities to assist private industry in rapidly developing and prototyping
new homeland security technologies, and $40 million for standards R&D.
Congress went along with the DHS
plan to make significant R&D investments in other areas: $123 million
for the development of radiological and nuclear countermeasures (down
slightly from $126 million in FY 2004); $73 million for chemical and
high explosives countermeasures to protect U.S. civilians against chemical
or explosives attacks, including a $10 million addition for R&D
on detecting potential explosive threats against passenger rail and
disseminating the latest technology to rail systems around the country;
$66 million for threat and vulnerability assessments to develop technologies
to analyze and evaluate threats, with a separate $18 million for cybersecurity
R&D broken out from last year’s integrated program; and $11 million
for R&D on emerging threats.
Most of the above S&T directorate
funds will be spent in federal laboratories or federally funded R&D
centers (FFRDCs; government-owned, contractor-operated
laboratories). DHS has an Office for National Laboratories that coordinates
DHS interactions with DOE national laboratories possessing expertise
in homeland security. So far, DHS has relied the most on five DOE laboratories
(Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Sandia, Pacific
Northwest, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories), which have set up lab-within-a-lab
structures to allow a core of laboratory employees to work primarily
for DHS with DHS funds while still drawing on the resources of their
DOE-funded colleagues. Recently, DHS set up its own FFRDC, a new Homeland
Security Institute (HSI). Most extramural R&D will be handled by
the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), which
will manage competitive solicitations for R&D grants to external
performers, cutting across all the homeland security technology areas.
R&D in Other DHS Directorates and Programs
- Directorate of Border and Transportation Security: Most DHS R&D
outside the S&T Directorate is funded by the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA), located within this directorate (see Table).
TSA’s R&D on aviation security rises $24 million to $178
million, of which an additional $21 million (for a total of $75 million)
would go to air cargo security R&D, $49 million would go to various
R&D program areas at TSA’s Technology
Center, and $54 million would go for ‘next-generation’ R&D on promising
explosive detection technologies for commercial aviation.
- Directorate of Emergency Preparedness
and Response: This directorate coordinates all federal assistance
in response to disasters (including natural disasters) and domestic
attacks, and folds in the former Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA). There are no R&D programs within this directorate.
Within this directorate, there is $5.6 billion over the next 10 years
to procure biodefense countermeasures from
the private sector, which could provide strong incentives for private-sector
investments in biodefense R&D. The FY 2004 DHS appropriation provided
$885 million in FY 2004 and an additional
$4.7 billion between 2005 and 2013 for the program named Project BioShield
in the President’s State of the Union address. $2.5 billion of this
money became available at the October 1 start of FY 2005 without any
further action by Congress, but spending authority and management for
the program transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) with the enactment of the Project Bioshield
authorization law in July. Although not an R&D program, the program
is designed to encourage private-sector R&D investments in biodefense
vaccines, therapeutics, and other countermeasures by providing a guaranteed
government market for future products. HHS
will use Bioshield funds to purchase countermeasures
for the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), which also transferred to
HHS from DHS over the summer. HHS expects to award the first Bioshield
contracts in late 2004.
- Directorate of Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection (IAIP):
There is no R&D funding in the $864 million budget for this directorate,
but IAIP collaborates with the S&T directorate in the Bio-Surveillance
initiative (see above). The S&T Directorate will assist this directorate’s
activities with R&D funded through its Cybersecurity
and Critical Infrastructure programs.
- Coast Guard: The Coast Guard, formerly in the Department of Transportation,
is now housed in DHS. Its R&D portfolio totaled $14 million in FY
2004, and increases to $19 million in FY 2005. DHS proposed to transfer
this R&D to the S&T Directorate under the line item “Conventional
Missions of DHS” (see Table), but Congress
decided to keep these R&D programs in the Coast Guard.
Next Steps
President Bush is expected to
sign the Homeland Security appropriations bill into law shortly. DHS is
fortunate to not only receive a large budget increase but also to receive its
budget in October. Most other R&D funding agencies, with the exception of
DOD, may have to wait months before they know what their FY 2005 budgets will
be.
- October 13, 2004
(This analysis is one of a series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates
on FY 2005 congressional appropriations. This analysis includes information
on R&D in final FY 2005 appropriations for the Department of Homeland
Security. The complete series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates, including
continually updated analyses of R&D by agency in FY 2005 appropriations,
is available on the AAAS R&D
Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd) in the "FY
2005 R&D" or the "What's New"
sections.)
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607; -6600
www.aaas.org/spp/rd
