DHS proposed FY2009 budget request: Highlights

designed for early warning of bioterrorism incidents

Protect critical infrastructure

* Total funding of $19 million for the U.S. Secret Service’s protective terrorist countermeasures aims to provide state-of-the-art equipment for use in the event of an explosive, chemical, biological, or radiological attack.

* An increase of $13 million for National Protection and Programs Directorate’s (NPPD) chemical security compliance project. DHS has issued regulations establishing risk-based security standards for chemical facilities. Additional funding is requested to increase the staff of this regulatory program and to provide tools and systems to collect and analyze vulnerability information, review plans, support and manage inspections activity, issue decisions, address appeals, and support compliance enforcement

* An increase of $55 million for deploying the TSA’s Travel Document Checking program to airports nationwide. This additional layer of defense for aviation security aims to help ensure only passengers with authentic boarding passes have access to the sterile area of airports and aboard aircraft

* Total funding of $1.3 billion for department-wide efforts to counter IED threats. This request includes more than $1.1 billion in funding for TSA explosives detection technology at airports, $50 million for science and technology development, $30 million for training of transportation security officers, and $9 million for DHS’s Office for Bombing Prevention. DHS has also made billions of dollars in grants available to states and communities for IED prevention and protection, and we continue to work with other federal agencies to address this threat

* A total of $293.5 million for the National Cyber Security Division further to deploy DHS’s EINSTEIN system on federal networks to protect against cyber threats and intrusions. This includes additional funding for enhancing the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team’s ability to analyze and reduce cyber threats and vulnerabilities

Build effective emergency response system

* An increase of $64.5 million in funding to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Vision- Shape the Workforce program.

* Total funding of $2.2 billion will support FEMA’s state and local assistance programs, which prepares state and local governments to prevent or respond to threats or incidents of terrorism and other catastrophic events. This funding will support existing DHS grants, Port and Rail Security grants, and Emergency Management Performance grants, and also proposes a new discretionary grant program targeted towards high-priority security initiatives including REALID implementation

* Total funding of $209 million will support FEMA’s disaster workforce, which will transition four-year Cadre On-Call Response Employees from temporary to permanent full-time personnel. An additional $200 million is provided in a new Disaster Readiness and Support Activities account to assist FEMA in working with state and local partners in preparing for future disasters and institutionalizing logistical and other capabilities in support of state disaster readiness leadership

* A funding increase of $43 million to support S&T laboratory facilities to include initial operations of the National Bio-defense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC). NBACC aims to provide essential bio-containment laboratory space for biological threat characterization and bio-forensic research.

Strengthen and unify DHS operations and management

* A total of $1.65 million for the first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) will fund the research, organization, analysis, and development the QHSR.

* An increase of $15.5 million for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) will continue implementation of the Transformation and Systems Consolidation (TASC) project.

* An increase of $3.1 million for the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer’s (CPO) DHS-wide acquisition workforce intern program will enhance the way the department recruits, trains, certifies, and retains an appropriate workforce of acquisition professionals. In fiscal year 2009, the intern complement will be raised to 100 people

* An increase of $6.4 million for the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to expand staff oversight of DHS preparedness programs, through audits of preparedness grant programs, S&T programs, and department-wide programs

* A total of $23.8 million will continue consolidation of the department’s seventeen legacy data centers into two enterprise-wide data centers