The Homeland Security Department's appropriations for the coming fiscal year could be reduced--in many cases significantly--under the House Appropriations Committee's markup of the department's annual appropriations bill.

The appropriations' committee markup, which was on the House floor June 1 with debate and votes on proposed amendments continuing until 12:30 a.m., would give DHS $40.6 billion in base funding for fiscal 2012. That's about $3 billion less than the president's budget request and $1.1 billion less than DHS received in the current year for base operations.

The committee would also allocate an additional $258.3 million for "global war on terrorism" operations conducted by the Coast Guard. Federal fiscal years begin each Oct. 1; we are in late in the third quarter of fiscal 2011.

Among the amendments reportedly approved the evening of June 1 were several that would cut additional funds for the office of secretary and other headquarters functions and apply those amounts to grants and other operational programs. The numbers we report below all come from the appropriations committee mark and don't take into account further possible reductions made on the House floor.

Among the reductions is a total denial of money that would fund a well-publicized effort underway to consolidate the number of DHS data centers down to two. The committee says DHS has requested $131.59 million in total for data center consolidation. "The Committee declines to fund this initiative in fiscal year 2012 and directs the Department to develop a plan to implement the migration instead in fiscal year 2013," appropriators say in the report accompanying the committee markup.

As for the DHS office of chief information officer, the committee would reduce its budget by $16.67 million to $261.3 million, which is also $72.09 million less than the current fiscal year amount.

Another reduction is a $27.62 million cut to the Border Security Fencing, Infrastructure and Technology request of $527.62 million; this is the line item that has funded the Customs and Border Protection's doomed SBInet effort to create a virtual border fence based on multi-sensor, integrated fixed towers feeding information into a common operating picture.

The same line item is funding the successor project to SBInet, an effort dubbed Alternative (Southwest) Border Technology, or ASBT. In the report, appropriators specify that $19.75 million of the $27.62 million cut is to specifically come from the $242 million DHS had wanted to spend on ASBT in fiscal 2012.

The report also casts some doubt on the departmental assertions about ASBT, including that CBP could deploy integrated fixed tower systems swiftly through a solicitation for commercial items. "The facts are contrary to this assertion. It took four years of painstaking work with the SBInet system for the Border Patrol to state that the system is working and has borne successes. Further, the Department acknowledges that integrated fixed tower systems are not a commoditized asset," the report states.

The Infrastructure protection and information security, which funds, among other activities, the National Cyber Security Division, the National Communications System and the Office of Emergency Communications, would be reduced by $45.24 million from the fiscal 2012 requested amount of $936.48 million. The committee-recommended amount would be $50.8 million more than current year appropriations. The National Cyber Security Division would specifically receive $25.24 million less than the $463.84 million it requested for fiscal 2012, the report says.

Customs and Border Protection's Automation Modernization project would get $29.75 million less than the $364.03 million requested, an amount that's also $2.3 million less that the current fiscal year amount. The line item funds, among a few other projects, the Automated Commercial Environment, which the report specifies should be funded at $140 million, $30 million less than the $170 million CBP wanted. "The Committee urges the Department to get ACE on track to complete its major capability drops," the report states.

The Automation Modernization line item also includes funding for Critical Operations Protection and Processing Support, which, in turn, funds modernization of the Treasury Enforcement and Communications System, which is a joint effort of CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. TECS modernization would receive $50 million under the committee markup. "The Committee is concerned that ICE is not on track with CBP's timeline for retirement of the TECS mainframe that will result in a significant resource burden for ICE in future years," the report states.

ICE's Automation Modernization funding, meanwhile, would gain $10 million under the committee's markup. ICE had requested $13.86 million, but appropriators say ICE could do with the extra money to offset at $50.14 million decrease in the current fiscal year, provided they apply the $10 million to TECS modernization. ICE would spend $19 million for TECS modernization under the committee's markup.

US-VISIT would experience a decrease of $4.87 million from its proposed fiscal 2012 amount of $302.27 million, an amount that would also be $37.21 million less than the current fiscal year amount. "The Committee does not support funding for the Acquisition Workforce Initiative or ‘US-VISIT 1.0,'" the report states.

The Science and Technology Directorate's $1.4 billion request for management and administration would be cut by $8.8 million, which is also $635,000 less than the current fiscal year amount.

The directorate's $1.03 billion for research, development, acquisition and operation would come under a big reduction of $628.85 million, an amount that would also be $289.82 million less than the current year fiscal amount.

"The Committee believes that S&T must more clearly demonstrate significant contributions to the homeland security mission and should prioritize the development of near-term, operational projects that promise substantive gains to our Nation's security. S&T will be required to do this under the funding levels proposed," the report states.

For more:
- go to the THOMAS page for the bill, H.R. 2017

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