By Rachael Bade, CQ Staff

House appropriators backed legislation Wednesday that would cut the Homeland Security Department’s funding by $484 million from current levels while boosting spending for first-responder grants, an account Republicans have sought to trim in recent years.

The Homeland Security Subcommittee gave swift voice vote approval to a fiscal 2013 draft bill that would provide $39.1 billion to the department. The total is about $393 million less than President Obama requested. Under the measure, the Transportation Security Administration’s funding would be cut by $422 million from current levels to $5.1 billion, the largest reduction among departmental agencies. (more…)

London prepares for the Olympic Games in the shadow of terrorism.

In a decision that took everyone by surprise, on July 6, 2005 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded London the 2012 Olympic Games. Camera crews at the ceremony in Singapore had to swivel their equipment to catch the English team’s response, poised, as they all were, to expect a Team Paris victory. Then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had taken the time prior to the G8 Summit he was hosting at Gleneagles, Scotland, to support the London presentation in Singapore, captured the nation’s jubilation when he said “it’s not often in this job that you punch the air and do a little jig and embrace the person next to you.” Revelers in Trafalgar Square in central London unfurled flags of thanks and celebrated long into the night.

Read more @ hstoday.us

Speaking on behalf of the National Governors Association (NGA) about the need to reform homeland security grant programs, James Davis, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, told the House Committee on Homeland Security subcommittee on emergency preparedness, response and communications that “federal funding for homeland security grant programs has been reduced by more than 50 percent over the last two fiscal years,” and that “the impact of this reduction, combined with ongoing state and local fiscal challenges, warrants reconsideration of the current grant structure to ensure funds can continue to be used as effectively as possible.”

Davis told the panel, “The decrease in funding has placed an administrative burden on grantees and has made it more difficult to achieve statewide and regional strategic goals. For instance, in some states, the fusion center has been supported in large part through the state’s 20 percent share of State Homeland Security Grant Program (SHSGP) funds. As those funds decrease, it is no longer possible to continue to operate the fusion center while also providing for management and administration of the entire SHSGP award or addressing other identified capability gaps.”

Read more @ hstoday.us

In the years following the 9/11 attacks, federal authorities have been asking the 17,000 U.S. local law enforcement agencies to man the front lines in domestic counterterrorism by gathering information about crimes and other suspicious activities that may indicate an impending attack.

For various reasons, the idea  has not been implemented as hoped. The local agencies have gathered information in haphazard ways, authorities say, or in many cases not at all. Most police offficers are trained to gather evidence to prove crimes, not to cultivate , gather, and analyze intelligence to prevent a terrorist strike.

Commander Joan T. McNamara, who heads the LAPD Counter-Terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau, has devised a method which is considered so inexpensive, easily implemented, and innovative that federal authorities are considering making it a national model for local law enforcement intelligence gathering.

Read more @ homelandsecuritynewswire.com

From the DHS Blog by Mark Weatherford, Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity

Last weekend I had the privilege of attending the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) in San Antonio, Texas. The Department of Homeland Security is proud to be one of the sponsors of this competition that took place over the course of three days and focused on the operational aspects of securing and defending a “commercial” network infrastructure.

Over the past year, 1,300 students from more than 100 schools around the country competed in state qualifiers and regional finals to represent their academic institutions in the world’s largest collegiate cyber defense competition. This past weekend, the eighty finalists pitted their knowledge, skills, and abilities in network defense against an elite group of professional “pentesters” or Red Team cyber-attackers. The scenarios allowed for the 10 teams of eight to defend identically configured “small business” networks supporting 50+ users with 7-10 servers. Teams were scored by a computerized engine on their ability to detect and respond to Red Team attacks, while maintaining availability of existing network services and business applications and also responding to common user requests for things like password changes and new services.

Read more @ blog.dhs.gov