DHS requests 8% budget increase

DHS requests 8% budget increase President Bush's fiscal year 2008 budget seeks $46.4 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, an 8 percent increase over the fiscal 2007 level, minus emergency supplemental appropriations, and a 50 percent increase since the department's first year in operation in 2003.
   Customs and Border Protection's budget includes $531 million for cargo security programs, such as the Container Security Initiative, Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, Secure Freight, and information technology systems.
   The Transportation Security Administration is slated to receive $6.3 billion, including more than $865 million for advanced technologies to detect explosives in passenger baggage and air cargo.
   The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office would receive $562 million if fully funded by Congress, a 17 percent increase from the current year. That figure includes $178 million to deploy radiation portal monitors, including next-generation advanced spectroscopic portal systems. DHS has said its goal is to screen 98 percent of all sea containers entering the United States by the end of September and all containers crossing the border by the end of fiscal 2008.
   The Coast Guard would receive $8.7 billion.
   DHS funding priorities for cargo and trade-related programs include:
   * A $15 million increase requested for the Secure Freight Initiative, a pilot program being conducted this year at a handful of foreign ports to test whether all U.S.-bound containers can undergo radiological and nuclear screening without disrupting traffic lanes.
   * $26.5 million, an increase of $16.5 million, in funding for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, which is being developed as a biometric card to control access to secure areas within ports and eventually other transportation facilities. Port workers and users are scheduled to begin enrollment for the TWIC in March.
   * A $788 million increase for the Coast Guard's Deepwater modernization program.
   * $15 million to establish a chemical site security office.
   * $17 million in new funding to improve internal oversight of personnel within CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
   * $210 million for port security grants. Ports and many lawmakers have pushed without success the past two years to increase the grant program to $400 million. The $210 million allocation is the largest amount ever proposed by President Bush and equal to the amount appropriated by Congress for 2007.
   * $30 million for the Secure Cities Initiative, which will be used in 2008 to deploy a system of radiological detectors around New York City.