Slow Anti-Terror Progress Wins Budget Cut From Congress

Congress appropriated about 30% less for IT at the Department of Homeland Security this fiscal year than the Bush administration had requested, according to an analysis conducted by Input, a government-focused market-intelligence firm.

When President Bush signed the department's appropriation in October, funding for the entire department was pegged at $29.4 billion, $1 billion above his original request. Most of the added money, however, will likely go toward salaries of emergency workers and passenger, baggage, and cargo screeners--not technology, says Lauren Jones Shu, Input's senior federal market analyst.

According to Input, Congress appropriated roughly $3 billion for technology spending by the department, representing 10% of Homeland Security's budget, compared with Bush's original request of $3.8 billion. Year over year, technology funding remained flat.

Shu says congressional cuts had the greatest impact on IT projects aimed at preventing terrorism, primarily because of concerns about the slow progress of these projects. Among the hardest-hit projects, she says: U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology entry and exit system, known as U.S. Visit, and the Automated Commercial Environment, or ACE, modernization program aimed tracking illicit cargo heading toward U.S. shores. Congress cut U.S. Visit appropriations by 25%, to $330 million, and ACE funding by 29%, to $441 million, according to Input.

"These reductions in funding will more likely result in scaled-down projects," Shu says, "rather than speeding DHS implementations along."