House approves $34.9B for homeland security

The omnibus spending bill approved by the House of Representatives on Dec. 19 includes $34.9 billion in baseline funding for the Homeland Security Department in fiscal 2008 and boosts major departmental information technology contracting efforts focused on US VISIT and the Real ID Act of 2005. The legislation contains funding not only for large business opportunities for IT contractors at the federal level, but also a wide variety of grants programs that offer additional opportunities. The legislation allocates an additional $2.7 billion for emergency spending for border security, of which $1.6 billion will pay for 370 miles of fencing and for portions of the Secure Border Initiative surveillance system being constructed along the U.S. borders.
(Washington Technology story)

DHS unveils Real ID grants

The Homeland Security Department released grant guidelines this week to assist states in applying for $35 million to begin implementing Real ID requirements for handling personal information associated with driver’s licenses. “These funds will advance the ability of states to verify the legitimacy of documents that applicants present and to confirm that the applicants are who they say they are," said Secretary Michael Chertoff. Under the Real ID Act of 2005, states must meet new rules for collecting, verifying, storing and publishing personal information related to driver’s licenses, and they must share the personal information of license holders with other states.
(Washington Technology story; DHS press release; DHS REAL ID home page)

Chertoff sets priorities for 2008

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff highlighted the department's 2007 achievements Dec. 12, also naming four key areas that he plans to focus on in the coming year: border security and immigration, secure identity, cybersecurity, and operations. Chertoff also said the department will spend the next year looking internally to improve the way it functions as a single, unified institution. He said one of the obstacles is excessive congressional oversight. While insisting that he believes monitoring is good for the department, he said DHS is dealing with "oversight run amok." In 2007, DHS officials testified before Congress 224 times. In the five-year history of the agency, officials have provided 7,800 written reports and answered 13,000 questions for the record.
(Government Executive story; DHS press release with Chertoff's complete remarks)

DHS accepts delivery of electronic fence

Amid a strong warning from Congress, the Homeland Security Department conditionally accepted delivery of the first phase of a controversial electronic border fence from contractor Boeing Co., and awarded the company a $64 million contract to build the next phase. At a press conference held Dec. 7, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff accepted the delivery of the first phase of the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet), a high-tech surveillance system consisting of radars, cameras and ground sensors connected by a wireless satellite network along a 28-mile section in southern Arizona. Chertoff said he was "satisfied for now" with the work Boeing has done on the first phase of the contract, known as Project 28. But he added, DHS would continue to be a tough customer, which he said means "if we're not satisfied with something, we're going to tell them [Boeing] we're not satisfied with it... I told the head of Boeing some time back, 'Look, I'm not, you know, you don't have a lock on this entire border.'"
(Government Executive story; DHS SBI update; DHS SBI home page)

DHS, FBI to integrate fingerprint databases

The Homeland Security Department began testing a fingerprint scanning application in certain airports so it can tap into an FBI database to identify more accurately whether visiting foreigners may be criminals, illegal immigrants or terrorists. Under a pilot project, foreigners landing in Dulles International Airport outside Washington have begun to have the fingerprint from each finger scanned when they enter the United States. Nine other major airports, including John F. Kennedy International in New York, will do the same starting in early 2008.
(Government Executive story)

Fusion centers report data access issues

Many state and local officials who work at fusion centers report problems logging onto federal networks and have difficulty handling the high volume of information they receive from federal authorities, according to a recent survey by government auditors. Nonfederal authorities started forming fusion centers to improve information sharing after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Since then the national authorities have become increasingly involved — particularly the Homeland Security Department and FBI, who have field agents assigned to some of the centers.
(Washington Technology story)

Visualization tools assist maritime security

New visualization tools are helping the Coast Guard develop situational awareness at the Port of Miami, but more assistance is needed to track small boats and noncooperative vessels, according to congressional testimony given this week. The Homeland Security Department’s Directorate of Science and Technology is funding the Visualization Tools for Situational Awareness and Emergency Response program, also known as Viz Tools.
(Washington Technology story)

Staying On Track

Asa Hutchinson likes to joke about the time he had 30 days to spend $350 million. It was the end of August 2003, and Hutchinson was the first undersecretary of Border and Transportation Security at the newly formed Homeland Security Department. His directorate's most pressing priority was meeting a congressional mandate to install by the end of the calendar year a system to track the entrance of foreign nationals through the nation's 115 international airports and cruise ship terminals at 14 seaports. The system was called US VISIT. And not only did DHS need to have US VISIT up and running by the end of the year, but it had to spend its 2003 appropriation for the program - which actually totaled about $362 million - by the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30. "That was a tight deadline," recalls Hutchinson, now a partner at the Washington law firm Venable LLC and chief executive officer of the Little Rock, Ark.-based Hutchinson Group. "We had a lot of detractors who said it couldn't be done." (Government Executive story)

U.S. expands security rule for Canadians

U.S. officials will start taking 10 fingerprints from Canadians entering the country on visas when they start expanding a four-year security program this month. Under US-VISIT, Canadians on visas have been required to scan their two index fingers and have a digital photograph taken. The biometrics are used to identify people by linking them to their visas or passports. Now, all fingers will be scanned, starting Nov. 30 at Washington Dulles International Airport and nine other major airports in early 2008.
(Canadian Press story)

First-responder network requirements issued

A public safety communications umbrella group has published its recommendations for setting up and operating the 700 Mhz broadband network that the Federal Communications Commission is establishing for first responders. The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, which represents more than a dozen organizations involved in first-responder communications, offered its vision of a 24/7-operating network available for critical public safety missions in its 53-page statement of requirements. Those requirements should include mission-critical availability, robustness, accessibility and hardened infrastructures, the council said.
(Washington Technology story; NSPTC statement of requirements)

Bush administration to fund fusion centers

The Bush administration plans to provide the necessary funding and support to make state and local fusion centers the focal point for sharing terrorism-related intelligence with nonfederal authorities. Administration officials released a National Strategy for Information Sharing last week that calls for an integrated network of fusion centers where state, local and federal officials could work side by side to prevent terrorism. Congressional leaders said they welcomed the new strategy, which encourages the sharing of information about all hazards and all crimes that have national security implications.
(Washington Technology story)

SBInet demo planned for northern border

The Homeland Security Department plans to showcase its SBInet border surveillance system in an upcoming Northern Border Demonstration in the Detroit and Great Lakes areas. Customs and Border Protection officials recently met with Canadian authorities, and separately with Michigan and Ohio law enforcement agents, to develop the plans for the first demonstration of the surveillance system along the Canadian border, DHS officials said. SBInet, which stands for Secure Border Initiative Network, is the department’s program to use radars, sensors, cameras and other technologies to create 24-hour networked surveillance system along the U.S. borders. Boeing Co., the prime contractor for SBInet, is installing the first 28-mile section along the Arizona-Mexico border.
(Washington Technology story)

$3B border security amendment dropped

The Defense Appropriations bill that passed Congress on Nov. 8 did not include a popular amendment to provide $3 billion for border security that included funds for fencing, unmanned aerial vehicles and ground sensors. The border security amendment, sponsored by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) was approved by the Senate in a 95-1 vote on Oct. 3. When House and Senate leaders negotiated the final terms of the bill in recent weeks, they removed the border security provision and its funding. Under Graham’s amendment, there would have been funding for 700 miles of fencing, unmanned aerial vehicles, ground sensors, vehicle barriers and other technology with the goal of reaching operational control of the borders. In addition, there would be money for enforcement and detention of illegal aliens.
(Washington Technology story)

Homeland Security’s high-tech gamble

Imagine that instead of anthrax-laced letters targeted at members of Congress the next bioterrorist attack to hit Washington is a wide-scale release of a toxin in the transit system. But rather than trusting a haphazard series of stationary air sensors installed at likely release points on platforms and waiting areas, first responders minimize the assault using thousands of mobile biodetectors embedded in a standard tool in every commuter’s arsenal: the cell phone. According to such a plan, a portion of the phone-toting population would voluntarily use devices that included minuscule bio, radiation or chemical sensors that could detect dangers in real time. If terrorists released a toxin, cell-phone sensors would detect the substances and signal the threat to District of Columbia police via the Global Positioning System network.
(Federal Computer Week story)

DHS tries to coordinate anti-bomb efforts

Sometimes when he hears the telephone, Charlie Payne has a scary thought. "Every time my phone rings at an odd time, I wonder if it's started," he says. Payne, chief of the Office for Bombing Prevention at the Homeland Security Department, is referring to terrorist bombings in the United States. For all the attention on potential dirty bombs, biological agents and chemical weapons, the tactic government leaders most expect terrorists to use in this country is the conventional explosive. "The attack weapon of choice still is the IED," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said at a Sept. 10 hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
(Government Executive story)

Chertoff in Iraq for Veterans Day

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff spent Nov. 11 in Iraq, where he participated in a ceremony for 178 foreign-born service members to become U.S. citizens. "I can't think of people who are more deserving of citizenship than those who are fighting to defend the country even before they are citizens," Chertoff said. "They understand that freedoms don't come free and they are willing to make sacrifices even before they reap the benefits of citizenship."
The ceremony took place at Camp Anaconda, some 50 miles north of Baghdad.
(Michael Chertoff bio)

Technology, integration fuel secure border opps

Homeland Security Department Secretary Michael Chertoff launched the Secure Border Initiative and its technology component, SBInet, two years ago with the goal of gaining operational control of the country’s southern and northern land borders by November 2010. The initiative has cost more than $2 billion to date and included the hiring of thousands of border patrol agents. It has also sparked a boom in information technology tools that facilitate surveillance and information sharing. The prospect of monitoring 6,000 miles of land borders and 6,000 miles of coastline in the continental United States is daunting and, some say, unrealistic.
(Washington Technology cover story)

New technology for IDs?

As governments go digital, the demand for contactless chips for use in electronic documents is expected to grow in the next five years to as much as $1 billion annually, and Texas Instruments (TI) wants a piece of that market. The Dallas company said last month that it is developing a new smart, integrated-circuit design that features a memory technology optimized for radio frequency readers. The State Department began issuing e-passports with embedded contactless chips in August 2006 and switched completely to the new format in May. The passports contain not only traditional printed information but also electronic data than can be accessed with RF readers. TI is eyeing the next generation of passports for its chips.
(Government Computer News story)

New York DMV, DHS tout Real ID

State officials show us how they will make driver's licenses more secure, but opponents say it does nothing to change their minds about the controversial plan to give licenses to illegal immigrants. DMV commissioner David Swarts and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Balboni were on hand for a demonstration of photo comparison and document scanning technology. They say that technology will make sure that the right people get access to a license -- and only one license.
(WXXA Albany report; DHS Real ID proposed guidelines)

DHS shows success in senior-level hiring

The Homeland Security Department hired above and beyond its projected targets for fiscal 2007 and increased its leadership capacity by 17 percent, the agency's top personnel official said Nov. 2. Marta Brito Perez, chief human capital officer for DHS, said in an interview with Government Executive that the department added more than 70 senior executive positions in fiscal 2007, bringing its total number of authorized high-level positions to 722. Of those, all but 73 are filled, and those are under active recruitment, she said.
(Government Executive story)