• Water infrastructure budgets to see massive cuts in 2012

    Next year water infrastructure projects and programs are expected to see massive budget cuts as President Obama has proposed slashing infrastructure spending at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) will see nearly $400 million cuts and the Clean Water SRF will be cut nearly $600 million; according to Lisa Jackson, the EPA administrator, these cuts in SRF budgets reflect a return to a more “sustainable level”; states worry that cuts will make it difficult to fund future infrastructure upgrades; reports have shown that the United States faces a $500 billion shortfall for water infrastructure funding over the next twenty years

  • $200,000 grant for upstate N.Y. fire department

    Last week the city of Tonawanda in western New York received nearly $200,000 from DHS to purchase new firefighting equipment; the money will be used to purchase harnesses, ropes, victim removal devices, enhanced air supply equipment, and a new communications system; funding comes from the DHS Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program; the grant comes at a critical time as the city is struggling with its budget; several local fire departments nearby also received grants last month including those in Rochester, Youngstown, and Ridge-Culver

  • Madison County, IL receives $260,000 in DHS grants

    Two fire departments in Madison County, Illinois were recently awarded more than $260,000 in federal grants; the grants come as part of DHS’ Assistance to Firefighters program and goes toward the purchase of new safety gear and firefighting equipment; the Wood River fire department will receive $223,556 to help pay for a high-volume foam monitor as well as foam that will be used to put out chemical fires; the Rosewood Heights Fire Protection District will receive $37,050 to procure thirty sets of new protective fire suits

  • GAO scrutinizes DHS financial management system

    The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has thrown a wrench in DHS’s long-running effort to modernize its financial management system, upholding a protest of the department’s most recent award; the decision could be significant for agencies reevaluating their IT programs in the wake of a slate of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reviews launched last year

  • Audit finds DHS dramatically improved its acquisition process

    A recent audit by the DHS Inspector General found that the department had dramatically improved its oversight of contracts and reduced the number of noncompetitive contracts awarded by 60 percent last year; in 2010 DHS awarded $1.3 billion in no compete contracts compared to $3.4 billion in 2009 and $3.5 billion in 2008; the inspector general reviewed forty noncompetitive contracts worth roughly $100 million dollars and found that the rate of deficiencies was only 7 percent; while the report found marked improvements, it also recognized that there were still gaps in DHS’ acquisition process

  • King blasts GOP for transportation security cuts

    Representative Peter King (R - New York), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, blasted the GOP’s plan to reduce the budget by $61 billion, citing cuts to critical anti-terror programs; the House plans to reduce spending on port security and transit facilities by $400 million, bringing total spending down to $200 million; local transit authorities say that losing federal funding would be detrimental as states and cities are struggling with their own budgets; the grants are designated for things like cameras, tunnel fortification, training, patrols, and canine teams at transport hubs and ports; proponents of the cuts believe that these programs are redundant, unnecessary, and lack sufficient oversight

  • DHS information officers discuss the future of technology at AFCEA

    The senior technology officials of several DHS agencies gathered for a roundtable discussion at the AFCEA Homeland Security Conference in Washington, D.C. to outline their priorities, challenges, and plans for procuring technology and implementing capabilities at their respective departments; information officers from TSA, the U.S Coast Guard, the National Protection and Programs Directorate, and Citizen and Immigration Services were present; each official expressed similar plans to increase mobile access to data, digitize records, establish national databases, and streamline the flow of information; officials believe these remotely accessible databases can also help reduce costs and enhance customer service; the officials also noted the difficulty in hiring qualified personnel with cyber security skills

  • House Republicans slash funds for border security, immigration enforcement

    House Republicans voted to slash spending for border security and immigration enforcement for the remainder of this fiscal year by an estimated $600 million; the House budget allocates $350 million less for border security fencing, infrastructure, and technology than Congress approved last year, and $124 million below what DHS requested; the bill also cuts an estimated $159 million over last year for Customs and Border Protection modernization and construction programs, and is $40 million less than the agency sought to get the job done

  • Critics: tough talk on border security not backed up with funds

    Last August, with virtually unanimous bipartisan support, Congress increased border funding by $600 million, adding 1,000 new agents to the Border Patrol; Republicans complained this was not enough — citing a GAO report that said that by the Border Patrol’s own standards, the agency had “operational control” over only 873 miles of the 2,000-mile border with Mexico in 2010, or about 44 percent; Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said administration officials “are either blissfully unaware of the massive holes in security along the Southern border or are intentionally misleading the American people”; trouble is, as part of their $60 billion in budget cuts, Republicans propose shrinking the Border Patrol by 870 agents and cut $272 million in funds for surveillance systems to monitor the border with Mexico

  • DHS requesting boost in cybersecurity funds

    Government, industry, and academia have labeled the shortage of cyber specialists in the government as a national security problem; the United States is looking to hire 30,000 security experts to safeguard cyberspace as opposed to the 1,000 personnel currently staffed government wide; DHS has requested $936 million in funding for FY 2012 to grow the federal cybersecurity workforce and enhance network protections

  • New DHS budget includes more money for airport scanners

    As lawmakers are trimming the budgets of many programs and agencies in an effort to reduce the deficit, funding for airport scanners has increased; overall discretionary funding for DHS has grown 0.7 percent to $43.2 billion, and includes more funding for full-body scanners; the Obama administration’s budget request allocates $77 million for the purchase of 275 additional full-body scanners; each scanner costs $280,000 and the additional order will bring the total number of scanners deployed at U.S. airports to 1,275; the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has introduced new software that projects a non-gender specific image to ease concerns over privacy issues that sparked a backlash last year

  • Coast Guard works to prevent rising mission-related deaths

    Admiral Robert Papp, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), announced that the service is conducting a comprehensive review and may eliminate certain missions and capabilities, in light of the sharp increase of mission related deaths; in the past two years, fourteen Coast Guard aviators and one Maritime Safety and Security Team (MSST) member have died in accidents that occurred during routine missions; Admiral Papp is concerned that service members are overburdened by training for too many different skill sets and have had inadequate time to master them; since 9/11 USCG has added missions and capabilities without a corresponding increase in service personnel; Papp cites a helicopter crash in July 2010 that killed three aviators as evidence; the crash occurred during a routine mission in which the team was flying from Astoria, Oregon to Sitka, Alaska

  • Obama asks for $43.8 billion for DHS -- 2 percent increase over 2011

    TSA hopes to buy more full-body scanners; already TSA has deployed nearly 500 of the scanners at 78 airports, and Obama’s budget proposed having as many as 1,275 installed by the end of 2012; the proposed budget also includes additional funds, about $3 billion, better to protect against a chemical, biological, nuclear, or radiological attack as well as critical infrastructure like power grids

  • FDA looks for ways to fund $1.4 billion Food Safety Reform Act

    Food-borne illness strikes 40 million Americans, hospitalizing 100,000, and killing thousands each year; on 4 January President Obama signed the long-awaited FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act into law — sweeping legislation that overhauls U.S. food-safety laws for the first time in more than seventy years; the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the food-safety law would cost about $1.4 billion in its first five years, including the cost of hiring an estimated 2,000 additional food inspectors; the passage of the legislation now presents FDA with the question of how to procure the funding required to implement and enforce the new system

  • Pentagon's budget cuts could signal future Homeland Security cuts

    National security budgets are no longer safe from cuts; lawmakers are increasingly targeting military, veterans, and Homeland Security budgets for cuts despite agreements and precedent to the contrary; on Thursday the Pentagon announced over $150 billion in savings that include $78 billion in budget cuts and a potential increase in fees for veterans’ healthcare; DHS cuts could be on their way next