The Homeland Security Department's second highest ranking official said she has "concerns" over language included in the report accompanying the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security committee's fiscal 2011 appropriations bill. DHS Undersecretary Jane Holl Lute testified July 21 before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The appropriations bill report language requires DHS to submit a spending plan for its Office of Intelligence and Analysis; the plan should focus on activities in areas where DHS "can provide unique expertise or serve intelligence customers who are not supported by other components of the intelligence community" the report states. The appropriations committee approved the funding bill on July 15.

During her testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs--which has oversight authority but no appropriations power--Lute asserted that the DHS I&A office doesn't duplicate the efforts of other intelligence agencies.

"One of the things we've been able to do over the past year and a half is really drill into what the value proposition of the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security is, and I&A is a vital part of that," she said.

Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chairman and senior Republican of the oversight committee, respectively, both voiced displeasure with their chamber's appropriations committee.

"I'm worried that it actually conflicts with existing law...and will inhibit the capacity of Intelligence and Analysis at DHS to be of help," Lieberman said. Collins urged Lute to write a letter to the appropriations committee.

DHS came under criticism during the hearing, however, for what senators said is lack of specificity in two congressionally-mandated planning documents, a DHS quadrennial review and a follow-up "Bottom Up Review."

The Bottom Up Review is "general and vague," Lieberman said. Collins said the reviews should have pointed to specific ways DHS will reduce its reliance on contractors. "What does the DHS [Bottom Up Review] say about this? Simply that DHS will 'continue build on contractor conversion efforts at an even more aggressive pace.' That is not a plan, it's simply a platitude," she said.

For more:
- go the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs webpage on the hearing, or go directly to the webcast
- go to the THOMAS webpage on S. 3607, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2011, or go directly to the report language
- download the Bottom Up Review (.pdf) and the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review Report (.pdf)

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