Border securitySenate immigration bill could yield billions in federal contracts

The Senate immigration bill will see billions of dollars go to defense and technology companies as a result of billions of dollars in new and expanded federal contracts aiming to bolster border security.

If the bill passes the House, it would direct the government to purchase four new drones, fifteen Blackhawk helicopters, night vision goggles, and high tech surveillance systems. The Hill reports that most of the spending will come from an amendment to the bill authored by Senators Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) and John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), which added $38 billion to the border security provisions in the bill.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said the amendment is “like a Christmas wish list for Halliburton.”

“I am sure there are federal contracting firms high-fiving at the prospect of all of the spending demanded by some of our friends on the other side in this amendment,” Judiciary Committee chairman  Leahy told committee members.

The bill’s $46 billion for border security will be used  to pay salaries for 20,000 additional border patrol agents and other government expenditures, but much money will be left  for  contracts for  technology and defense companies. The Corker-Hoeven amendment contains language which suspends competition requirements for contracts.

The bill will  speed up the Customs and Border Protection agency’s Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT) program, which calls for building eighty-seven towers with surveillance equipment in California, Arizona, and Texas to help  border agents  detect illegal crossing.

Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are among the contenders for the contract.

The bill contains $22 billion in discretionary spending, including an expanded electronic worker verification system, an overhaul of existing visa programs, and additional funds for immigration courts.

Some analysts say that in the end defense and technology companies may not see many gains.

“People may see this top-line number and think it’s a gravy train, but there’s less for contractors than meets the eye,” Stewart Verdery, the founder and partner of Monument Policy Group and former DHS official told theHill. Verdery was the assistant secretary for policy at the department during its early years.

Most of the money mentioned in the bill  would be appropriated – and  Congress may never appropriate it.

The only guaranteed funding is for the first fiscal year to cover start-up costs totaling $11.8 billion.

“I don’t see it as a game changer for companies in this space,” Verdery said. “It’s not going to be as much of a sea change as it was the three years after 9/11, there will be a much more modest increase in DHS contracts.”