Homeland Security Research and Development Funding, Organization, and Oversight
Released: 2006-12-29T00:00:00

Funding for Homeland Security R&D

Federal agency funding for homeland security R&D was requested at about $5.1 billion for FY2007, about the same amount as in FY2005 and FY2006. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) reports that the top three agency supporters are the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), specifically the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at 40% of the total, DHS with about 23%, and the Department of Defense (DOD), with 21%. See Table 1 . Other funding agencies in descending order are the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Aeronautics, and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Department of Commerce (DOC). DHHS (NIH) manages most of the federal civilian effort against bioterrorism. DHS R&D focuses largely on technology-oriented projects, which for FY2007, emphasize countermeasures against weapons of mass destruction (WMD). DOD's homeland security R&D portfolio includes work on countering chemical and biological threats, emergency preparedness, and R&D supported by the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG), a State Department/DOD group that coordinates interagency R&D on new technologies to combat terrorism. USDA's work includes physical protection for agricultural resources and maintaining security of the food supply. NSF's homeland security R&D focuses on protection of critical infrastructures and key assets and includes cybersecurity R&D. EPA has focused on toxic materials research. In the DOC, R&D at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) deals with protecting information systems. In the past, DOE's counterterrorism R&D included work on materials, detection of toxic agents, genomic sequencing, DNA-based diagnostics, and microfabrication technologies. NASA's homeland security R&D deals with aviation safety and remote sensing.

Creation of a Department of Homeland Security and Other Laws

The Homeland Security Act of 2002, P.L. 107-296 , created DHS and, as one of its four directorates, a Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T). The Under Secretary for S&T, created by Title III, has responsibility for most of DHS's research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E). The Under Secretary's responsibilities are to: coordinate DHS's S&T missions; in consultation with other agencies, develop a strategic plan for federal civilian countermeasures to threats, including research; except for human health-related R&D, conduct and/or coordinate DHS's intramural and extramural R&D; set national R&D priorities to prevent importation of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and related (CBRN) weapons and terrorist attacks; collaborate with DOE regarding using national laboratories; collaborate with the Secretaries of USDA and DHHS to identify biological "select agents;" develop guidelines for technology transfer; and support U.S. S&T leadership. If possible, DHS's research is to be unclassified.

Title III transferred to DHS DOE programs in chemical and biological security R&D; nuclear smuggling and proliferation detection; nuclear assessment and materials protection; biological and environmental research related to microbial pathogens; the Environmental Measurements Laboratory; and the advanced scientific computing research program from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. DHS was mandated to incorporate a newly created National Bio-Weapons Defense Analysis Center and USDA's Plum Island Animal Disease Center, but USDA is permitted to continue to conduct R&D at Plum Island. Coast Guard and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) R&D are now located within DHS. DHS's Secretary is to collaborate with the DHHS Secretary to set priorities for DHHS's human health-related CBRN R&D.

Title III authorized establishment of the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) to support applications-oriented, innovative RDT&E in industry, FFRDCs, and universities. Extramural funding is to be competitive and merit-reviewed, but distributed to as many U.S. areas as practicable. The law mandated creation of university-based centers of excellence for homeland security; five multi-year awards ranging between $10 million to $18 million have been made for centers on: risk and economic analysis of terrorism at the University of Southern California; agro-security at the University of Minnesota and at Texas A&M; on behavioral and sociological aspects of terrorism at the University of Maryland; and on high consequence event preparedness and response at Johns Hopkins. DHS and EPA jointly fund a cooperative center on advancing microbial risk assessment at Michigan State; there are plans for a DHS-Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory cooperative center on computational challenges for homeland security. DHS also supports a university fellowship/training program, which plans to train 200 students in 2007, down from 300 in 2006, and up to 15 postdoctoral fellows. Regarding intramural R&D, DHS may use any federal laboratory and may establish a headquarters laboratory to "network" federal laboratories. DHS relies mostly on the following DOE laboratories: Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Sandia, Pacific Northwest and Oak Ridge. A Homeland Security Institute (HSI), an FFRDC operated by Analytic Services Inc., funded in May 2004, is authorized to conduct risk analysis and policy research on vulnerabilities of, and security for, critical infrastructures; improve interoperability of tools for field operators and first responders; and test prototype technologies. A clearinghouse was authorized to transfer information about innovations. In addition, DHS created the Interagency Center for Applied Homeland Security Technology (ICAHST), which validates technical requirements and conducts evaluations for threat and vulnerability testing and assessments.

P.L. 107-296 gave the DHS Secretary special acquisitions authority for basic, applied, and advanced R&D (Sec. 833). The Special Assistant to the Secretary, created by Sec. 102 of the law, is to work with the private sector to develop innovative homeland terrorism technologies. DHS issued rules for liability protection for manufacturers of anti-terrorism technologies pursuant to the Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies (SAFETY) Act of 2002, part of P.L. 107-296 . DHS also issued a rule to handle critical infrastructure information that is voluntarily submitted to the government in good faith that will not be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act ( Federal Register , Feb. 20, 2004, pp. 8073-8089). Sec. 1003 of P.L. 107-296 authorized NIST to conduct R&D to improve information security. P.L. 107-305 , the Cyber Security Research and Development Act, authorized $903 million over five years for NSF and NIST R&D and training programs to combat terrorist attacks on computers.

For FY2007, DHS requested funding for R&D per se of $1.1 billion, and Congress, in P.L. 109-295 , appropriated $1.0 billion, about 22% less than the estimated FY2006 level. This is the first reduction in the agency's R&D budget since DHS was created in 2002. The FY2007 budget increased R&D support for explosives countermeasures, interoperable communications, and cybersecurity. Other areas of R&D, including university centers, received decreased funding. See Table 2 . The FY2006 appropriations law had increased R&D funding above the President's requested levels for biological countermeasures, explosives countermeasures, DNDO, rapid prototyping, SAFETY Act, interoperable communications, and critical infrastructure. See CRS Report RL33428, Homeland Security Department: FY2007 Appropriations and CRS Report RL33345, Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2007 , (section on DHS).

Interagency Coordination Mechanisms

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is a statutory office in the Executive Office of the President; its director advises the President and recommends federal R&D budgets. The OSTP Director is responsible for advising the President on homeland security (Sec. 1712 of P.L. 107-296 ). The Director has chaired the National Security Council's Preparedness Against Weapons of Mass Destruction R&D Subgroup, comprised of 16 agencies. OSTP also manages the interagency National Science and Technology Council (NSTC)'s Committee on Homeland and National Security to help set R&D priorities in eight functional areas. OSTP's interagency work has focused on such topics as anthrax, regulations to restrict access to research using biological "select agents," access to "sensitive but unclassified" scientific information, policy for foreign student visas, access to "sensitive" courses, and advanced technology for border control. Pursuant to Executive Order 13231, OSTP worked with the interagency President's Critical Infrastructure Board to recommend priorities and budgets for information security R&D. The working group on bioterrorism prevention, preparedness, and response, established by Sec. 108 of P.L. 107-188 , the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, consists of the DHHS and DOD Secretaries and other agency heads. The Homeland Security Council (HSC), created by P.L. 107-296 , provides policy and interagency guidance. An HSC Policy Coordination Committee on R&D was created pursuant to Executive Order 13228. Former DHS Under Secretary McQueary testified that, by the fall of 2004, all U.S. government R&D "relevant to fulfilling the Department's mission will have been identified and co-ordinated as appropriate." He inventoried DHS's many R&D-related interagency activities in testimony before the House Committee on Science on February 16, 2005. In 2006, GAO issued a report dealing with Plum Island, DHS and USDA Are Successfully Coordinating Current Work, But Long-Term Plans Are Being Assessed (GAO-06-132).

Oversight Issues

Controversial issues about DHS's R&D include preventing conflicts of interest in awarding R&D funds since many DHS S&T portfolio managers are hired from, and will return to, national laboratories which are among the contenders for DHS R&D contracts and awards' decisions, which according to GAO, are often undocumented (based on DHS Needs to Improve Ethics-Related Management Controls for the Science and Technology Directorate, December 2005, GAO-06-206); providing Congress with more detailed information regarding priority setting and R&D budgeting and spending (see H.Rept. 109-476 and S.Rept. 109-273 on DHS's FY2007 appropriations request); monitoring HSARPA's mission and performance in transitioning homeland security technology to the field; assessing possible waste in technology procurement; improving the effectiveness of DHS's S&T (only one program of six that were evaluated using OMB's Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART) received a score of "highly effective"); developing S&T priorities that meet responder needs and benefit from external experts' advice; monitoring the adequacy of cybersecurity R&D; and improving linkages between providing rapid scientific and technical expertise and decisionmaking and responding to weapons of mass destruction attacks and incidents. DHS's Acting Inspector General testified on January 26, 2005 before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that the S&T Directorate needs to better integrate threat assessment information into its priority-setting and to improve inter- and intra-agency coordination.

Executive Order 13311 transferred to DHS the President's responsibilities to design procedures to protect sensitive unclassified homeland security information that were mandated by Sec. 892 of P.L. 107-296 . DHS issued guidance for its own information control procedures in Management Directive System MD Number: 11042.1 , 01/05/05 , but has not yet released government-wide guidance on this controversial topic. For additional information, see CRS Report RL33303, "Sensitive But Unclassified" Information and Other Controls: Policy and Options for Scientific and Technical Information .

Legislation

During the 109 th Congress, the House passed H.R. 1817 , a DHS authorization bill, on May 18, 2005; it was referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. It would have required creation of the Technology Clearinghouse mandated in P.L. 107-296 , a homeland security technology transfer program, and a working group, including the DOD Secretary, to advise the clearinghouse to identify relevant military technologies. It would also have required assessment of whether DHS procurements are candidates for the litigation and risk management protections of P.L. 107-296 , established a university center of excellence for border security, authorized academic and other types of cybersecurity R&D, and allowed DOE laboratories to participate in proposal writing and other activities of the university centers of excellence.

On June 14, 2006, the Homeland Security Committee reported two bills. An amended H.R. 4941 , the Homeland Security S&T Enhancement Act, would have required DHS to transfer anti-terrorism technology developed by federal agencies or the private sector, to develop standards for first-responder communications equipment, require the government to share results of tests of equipment with first responders, to develop a strategic plan for S&T activities, and to work to develop guidelines for researchers about the potential homeland security implications of their work. H.R. 4942 , the Promoting Anti-Terrorism Capabilities Through International Cooperation Act, would have required DHS's S&T Directorate to support homeland security R&D with U.S. allies. It was reported ( H.Rept. 109-674 ), amended, and approved on September 26, 2006. H.R. 5814 , an authorization bill, reported by the Homeland Security Committee on July 19, 2006, would have streamlined SAFETY Act procedures to develop anti-terrorism technology, enhanced biosurveillance systems, and created an assistant secretary for cybersecurity.