Highlights
- The final Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) budget for FY 2006 provides $1.3 billion
for R&D, a 4.1 percent increase that slows recent growth in
the DHS R&D portfolio (see Table).
- R&D
to develop countermeasures against weapons of mass destruction continue
to dominate the DHS R&D portfolio. The final DHS budget contains
$212 million for radiological and nuclear countermeasures R&D (nearly
double 2005 funding), including a new Domestic Nuclear Detection Office
(DNDO). The largest portfolio continues to be biological countermeasures
with $380 million.
- There are large
increases for R&D on more conventional threats, including $44 million
for explosive countermeasures (more than double 2005 funding), $110
million for R&D to counter portable anti-aircraft missiles (up 80
percent), and $41 million for critical infrastructure protection R&D.
- To offset
increases in priority areas, there are cuts in other areas of the DHS
R&D portfolio, including threat and vulnerability assessments
(down 35 percent to $43 million), standards development (down 12 percent
to $35 million), rapid prototyping (down more than half to $35 million),
cybersecurity, and aviation security.
DHS R&D in FY 2006 Conference Appropriations: Modest Boost to $1.3
Billion
On September 29, a House-Senate conference committee agreed
on a final version of the FY 2006 Homeland Security (HS) appropriations
bill (HR 2360), the third of the FY 2006 appropriations bills to make
it through conference. After the House and the Senate give final approval
and the President signs it into law within the next few days, the HS
conference report will give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
a final FY 2006 budget just a few days into the new fiscal year. The final Homeland Security bill provides $1.3 billion for DHS R&D
in FY 2006, an increase of 4.1 percent or $51 million that is likely
to be more substantial than most other R&D agencies will get in
tough budgetary times, but is well off the double-digit percentage gains
of past years (see Table).
Although congressional
appropriators stuck to their earlier proposals for $30.8 billion in
discretionary funding for DHS in FY 2006, an increase of $1.4 billion
(excluding FY 2005 disaster relief supplementals
and Bioshield funding), they shifted some additional money toward
R&D programs in House-Senate conference, resulting in a final 4.1
percent boost in DHS R&D compared to the 1.9 percent Senate and
1.3 percent House increases from June. Both these proposals trimmed
DHS’ own 3.6 percent requested increase. (For details of the President’s
request for DHS R&D, please see Chapter 12
of AAAS
Report XXX: R&D FY 2006 or
the February 25 DHS R&D Funding Update.
For details of House appropriations, see the June
3 R&D Funding Update; for details of Senate appropriations,
see the June 20 R&D Funding Update).
R&D in the Directorate of Science and Technology
In FY 2006, nearly all DHS R&D programs will
have their home in the Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T). 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. DHS proposed to finish consolidating
all R&D activities within the S&T Directorate, but Congress
keeps Coast Guard (CG) R&D separate within the Coast Guard appropriation
at $18 million. But Transportation Security Administration (TSA) R&D,
which like the Coast Guard transferred to DHS from the Department of
Transportation (DOT) in 2003, moves to the S&T Directorate in 2006
(see Table).
Figure 1. (click
on the image for PDF)
There are dramatic shifts in DHS R&D priorities in 2006 (see Figure
1). The top priorities in the DHS R&D portfolio are clearly radiological
and nuclear countermeasures (increasing 73 percent to $212 million in
FY 2006), including the establishment of a Domestic Nuclear Detection
Office (DNDO); chemical countermeasures (climbing 79 percent to $95
million); explosives countermeasures (up 123 percent to $44 million)
and R&D to counter portable anti-aircraft missiles (up 80 percent
to $110 million).
Within radiological and nuclear countermeasures, nearly all the funds
go for $193 million in start-up money for R&D in the new Domestic
Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), down slightly from the $227 million
request. The DNDO will develop, acquire, and support a domestic system
to detect and report terrorist attempts to transport or use radiological
or nuclear materials. DNDO will be staffed with a multi-agency team
and will coordinate its efforts with the intelligence community, and
hopes to fund R&D, develop new technologies, and transition these
technologies to field use. An additional $125 million in non-R&D
procurement funds for radiation portal monitors at the nation’s ports
of entry brings the total DNDO budget to $318 million. The large DNDO
appropriation comes as something of a surprise, since both the House
and the Senate had expressed doubt as to whether the new office could
realistically spend such large sums in its first year. But these doubts
appear to have been resolved in appropriators’ minds, although the final
HS bill retains language making half of the funding conditional on DHS
submitting for General Accountability Office (GAO) review a multi-year
budget, staffing, and organizational plan that clearly outlines how
DHS proposes to spend the new funds.
The explosives
countermeasures portfolio more than doubles from $20 million to $44
million. The final appropriation allocates $30 million specifically
for three air cargo screening pilot projects using new detection technologies.
The Counter MANPADS portfolio nearly
doubles to $110 million (up 80.3 percent). Man Portable Air Defense
Systems (MANPADS) are shoulder-mounted portable air missiles that have
been used (unsuccessfully so far) against passenger aircraft. Fears
of a successful MANPADS attack against commercial aircraft have jump-started
DHS’ Counter MANPADS effort. The increased FY 2006 investment will allow
DHS to develop, prototype, and test promising technologies in aircraft
to give policymakers a range of options on how to most effectively protect
commercial aviation. The Department of Defense (DOD) also has a CounterMANPADS
R&D effort, though smaller at a proposed $13 million.
Another area due for a large increase
is R&D for Support of DHS Components, up 46 percent to $80 million.
This R&D portfolio represents S&T Directorate programs that
support the missions and capabilities of other DHS units, such as the
Border Patrol, the Secret Service, and the Emergency Preparedness and
Response directorate. Key technologies explored in this portfolio are
border surveillance technologies, container shipping security, disaster
modeling and simulation capabilities, and protective equipment.
Large increases for the priorities above are offset by cuts in other
areas of the DHS R&D portfolio, including threat and vulnerability
assessments (down 35 percent to $43 million), standards development (down 12
percent to $35 million), rapid prototyping (down 54 percent to $35 million), cybersecurity, and aviation security (see Figure 1). TSA
R&D programs in aviation security, funded at $187 million in FY 2005, move
to the S&T Directorate at $100 million in FY 2006, a dramatic reduction,
although some TSA R&D areas migrate to the explosive countermeasures
portfolio. But Congress also adds funds to some areas that were proposed for
cuts in the DHS request, including a 51 percent boost for critical
infrastructure R&D to $41 million instead of a proposed
cut, and an increase for R&D in interoperable communications technology for
first responders to $27 million instead of flat funding of $21 million.
Figure 2. (click
on the image for PDF)
The largest part of the DHS R&D portfolio continues to be biological
countermeasures, with an investment of $380 million in FY 2006,
nearly even with 2005 (see Figure 2). Although there is no new money,
construction of the National Biodefense Analysis
and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) at Fort Detrick,
Maryland continues in FY 2006 with
previously appropriated funds toward a target completion date of 2008.
The FY 2006 appropriation contains $23 million in new funds to start
construction of a new National Bio and Agrodefense
Facility (NBAF), a $450 million total project with a scheduled completion
of 2010 to enhance DHS capabilities to respond to food or animal-borne
terrorist threats and to replace DHS’ existing facility on Plum
Island, New York. The
new facility signals a higher DHS priority on agroterrorism
in cooperation with similar efforts underway at the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA).
Congress agrees with the request to make modest cuts to $63 million for
University Programs and Fellowship Programs, down from $70 million
in FY 2005 but still well above $22 million in 2004. The report language
explains this cut by noting that the program does not expect to spend
$45 million in FY 2005 funds by the end of the year, allowing total
FY 2006 funding to exceed $100 million. This program funds several university-based
centers of excellence and is a funding source dedicated exclusively
to funding university-based research. DHS has already designated four
university-based centers for homeland security; the latest, awarded
to the University of Maryland
and its partners, will focus on behavioral and social aspects of terrorism.
Another focuses on threat assessments and two focus on agro-terrorism.
The fifth center, to be awarded shortly, will
focus on preparations and responses to terrorist attacks, and will be
followed by three other centers to be awarded by the end of FY 2006.
The program also funds cooperative centers awarded in collaboration
with other federal agencies for research areas of mutual interest: there
will soon be a joint DHS-EPA award for a center on microbial risk assessment,
followed by two more cooperative centers by the end of FY 2006. This
program also funds fellowships and scholarships that fund graduate education
and research opportunities for scientists and engineers.
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. Over the past year, DHS has set up its own FFRDC,
a new Homeland Security Institute (HSI), and has also consolidated R&D
activities at laboratories it inherited from other departments. The
extramural R&D portfolio in the S&T directorate is managed by
the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA),
modeled on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in
the Department of Defense (DOD). HSARPA awards extramural grants for
basic and applied research to promote revolutionary changes in homeland
security technologies; develops and tests potential homeland security
technologies; and accelerates or prototypes the development of homeland
security technologies to get them ready for deployment. HSARPA administers
DHS’ Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which provides
competitively awarded exploratory and development grants to small businesses
and has an estimated budget of $23 million in FY 2005 and slightly more
next year.
Next Steps and Possible Impacts
The final DHS R&D appropriation
represents a slowdown from recent gains in the DHS R&D portfolio
(see Figure 3). In its short history, the DHS R&D portfolio has
expanded from nothing to an approximately $300 million transfer of other
agencies’ R&D programs in FY 2002 followed by dramatic gains in
2003, 2004, and 2005 primarily for the creation of new R&D capabilities.
Now that the start-up phase of DHS appears to be complete, the department’s
R&D portfolio has entered a mature phase in which large increases
are no longer assured.
The House and the Senate are
expected to approve the Homeland Security conference report within days, and
President Bush will sign it into law in early October. The HS bill will be only
the third of the dozen FY 2006 appropriations bills to be signed into law.
Figure 3. (click
on the image for PDF)
-
September 30, 2005
(This analysis is one of a series of AAAS R&D Funding
Updates on FY 2006 congressional appropriations. The complete series
of AAAS R&D Funding Updates, including continually updated analyses
of R&D in FY 2006 appropriations, is available on the AAAS
R&D Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd) in the "FY
2006 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
AAAS R&D
Web site: www.aaas.org/spp/rd
