In today’s fiscally constrained environment, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is assessing the best use of its money for research and development projects both inside and outside of the department.

To that end, DHS has been careful to make certain it is investing wisely in its internal laboratories while relying on outside facilities like the National Laboratories at the Department of Energy (DOE) as much as possible, DHS officials told a hearing of the House Homeland Security cybersecurity and technology subcommittee Thursday.

Daniel Gerstein, DHS deputy under secretary for science and technology, confirmed that DHS had engaged the National Academy of Sciences to take a second look at a planned National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kan.

DHS asked the academy to assess if the NBAF facility, as planned, is affordable, particularly in the tight budget environment. The academy is contemplating the questions of whether to build the NBAF as intended, to build a smaller version of the NBAF, or to keep the current Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), built in 1954 in New York, operational instead in conjunction with maximizing research from foreign countries.

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It is a truism in the scholarly research of large organizations, for instance the Department of Homeland Security with more than 200,000 employees, that when a public or private sector institution initiates a self-study the findings will always err on the side of caution and restraint.  But what if the institutional self-study actually uncovers serious problems?  And what if we’re not talking about widgets but national security?

DHS’s Office of Inspector General published a report in February, its second in a series of three, which specifically looks at major issues within its own domain of more than twenty federal agencies.  The title of the redacted version of this report is: Information Sharing on Foreign Nationals: Border Security (OIG-12-39, February 2012).  (This report follows a previous study, also by the OIG, Information Sharing on Foreign Nationals: Oversees Screening (OIG-11-68); a third report is scheduled.)

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A congressional report issued earlier this month concluded that “10 years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the US government [still] does not have a single definition for ‘homeland security,’” and that agencies’ strategic documents and mission statements derive from varying homeland security definitions.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, Defining Homeland Security: Analysis and Congressional Considerations, said, “There is still no single national homeland security definition, nor is there a prioritization of national homeland security or DHS missions.”

Consequently, all these “varied homeland security definitions and missions may impede the development of a coherent national homeland security strategy and may hamper the effectiveness of congressional oversight,” explained the report’s author, Shawn Reese, an analyst in emergency management and homeland security policy at CRS.

Moreover, because there doesn’t appear to be a “succinct homeland security concept” for the allocation of federal homeland security funding, approximately 50 percent is not appropriated for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

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Over the past few years, DHS has been cutting funding for grants to state and emergency response agencies. The budget for fiscal year 2012 intended for state and local grants has been reduced to $2,374,681,000. This is a cut of $846,177,830 from the FY 2011 budget of $3,220,858,830. Similar levels of reductions have been imposed by state governments.

These cuts impose difficulties for states and municipalities that have come to rely on these grants for equipment acquisition, upgrade, and maintenance.

The Tennesseean reports on the impact in one such state, Tennessee.

DHS had granted $192 million to Tennessee for fighting terrorism, and the money was used for the acquisition of r remote-controlled bomb-handling robots; special equipment for collapsed building rescues; high-tech surveillance cameras; all sorts of boots, masks, and body armor; and food for police dogs. There was even a training seminar about how to apply for more money.

Read more @ homelandsecuritynewswire.com

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano traveled to Phoenix, Ariz., this week to meet with state and major urban area fusion center leaders and to discuss ongoing information sharing and analysis programs and collaboration with federal, state, local, tribal and territorial partners at the 2012 National Fusion Center Training Event.

In the wake of controversy over a variety of issues, including surveillance and monitoring practices and complaints about inadequate involvement by DHS, Napolitano said collaborating with federal, state, local, tribal and territorial partners to improve information sharing and analysis is crucial. She also emphasized the importance of enhancing our nation’s ability to identify, mitigate and respond to emerging threats and the importance of working jointly with fusion centers to further develop their grassroots analytic capabilities so that national intelligence can be placed in a local context.

“Homeland security begins with hometown security, and fusion centers play a vital role in keeping communities safe all across America,” Napolitano told fusion center directors and personnel. “Fusion centers enhance hometown security in many ways — as they are uniquely well-positioned to help local officials better protect their communities from all threats, whether it is terrorism or other criminal activities.”

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