Security
Some Homeland Security Activities Remain Unfunded
by William New
Despite President Bush's approval of the fiscal 2004 Homeland Security Department spending bill, more than 25 percent of federal homeland security activities remain unfunded, a top Senate budget expert said Monday.
Six weeks into fiscal year 2004, Congress has passed four of 13 departmental appropriations bills. The Homeland Security appropriations was the first signed by Bush, but in fact that accounts for little more than half of administration-wide spending on homeland security, said Bill Hoagland, budget and appropriations director in the Senate Majority Leader's office.
Total fiscal 2004 federal spending on homeland security is expected to be $41.3 billion, Hoagland said at an Equity International homeland security conference. Only about two-thirds, or approximately $23.9 billion, of the total Homeland Security Department funding of $29.4 billion is for homeland security activities. The remainder is for items such as regular operations of the Coast Guard and disaster response.
The only other homeland security spending approved so far is about $6.7 billion under the Defense Department, which combined with the Homeland Security Department, brings the total to date to about $30 billion, or three-quarters of the total $41.3 billion, he said.
Of the remaining appropriations legislation, the bill to fund the Commerce, Justice and State departments accounts for the largest additional homeland security spending, Hoagland said. The Senate began work on that bill Monday afternoon, but it contains "very controversial" issues such as media ownership at the FCC, he noted.
Also on the panel, Michael Geffroy, senior counsel on the House Homeland Security Committee, said, "It's fair to say it is time for the department to find its legs" and move forward on its mission.
Geffroy walked through a bill proposed by committee Chairman Christopher Cox, R-Calif., to "dramatically reshape" the distribution of grant money to first responders to emergencies. He said the chairman hopes the committee can address the bill, which would provide regional funding on the basis of overdue Homeland Security Department threat assessments rather than on population, before Thanksgiving recess.
Geffroy also discussed other committee legislation, including setting "milestone markers" for the department as a way to measure progress over time. He said Cox's staff is working with committee Democrats and industry to identify good milestones, and he predicted the process would not be resolved before Congress leaves for the year.
The committee also is examining industry concerns that intellectual property and business proprietary information is not adequately protected under the law creating the Homeland Security Department. "There is clear recognition that there are many questions about the regulations in place," Geffroy said afterward. The committee will continue gathering views on this issue into next year, he said.
Security
Customs, Transportation Hold Future For Security Spending
by William New
The outlook of homeland security technology spending is brightest in border and transportation security, government and private sector experts said Monday.
But homeland security spending overall will remain flat and be complicated by several issues, said Bill Hoagland, budget and appropriations director in the Senate Majority Leader's office.
Hoagland said the new "shock and awe" government deficits combined with the "very large" current account deficit would limit available resources no matter how much the economy rebounds.
"We're going to have a very tough fiscal situation as we go into the election year," he said, adding that there will be no "peace dividend" from the war on terrorism as there was after the Berlin Wall came down in the 1980s. "That wall came down but [the Bush administration] is building another wall right now in the Middle East."
Speaking at an Equity International homeland security event, Hoagland predicted spending will shift from critical infrastructure protection to border and transportation security. Funding for first responders will continue, and problems facing states and localities will persist, as will a trend toward requiring offsetting user fees to recover some security costs, he said. Other issues Hoagland cited include a continued fight over the BioShield program for protecting against a bioterrorist attack, increased attention to air and sea cargo security, and concerns about overlapping jurisdictions, staffing, pay and earmarks for local district programs, also known as "pork."
"Keeping track of what they spend pales in comparison to measuring what is accomplished," Hoagland said.
David Bolka, director of the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), described his agency as a "startup within a startup within a merger," but said progress is being made on developing new technologies, especially against chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear threats. He said currently, HSARPA will focus about 85 percent to 90 percent of its funding on satisfying requirements of its "user" agencies, with the remainder on "blue sky," high-risk research and development. He predicted that in the next five years the blue-sky component would grow to 20 percent or 30 percent.
He and other agency officials on the panel said efforts are underway to identify research and development duplication within government.
Michael Dufault, research director at Equity International, predicted the market for homeland security procurements would level off in the future as the larger needs are fulfilled. But homeland security procurement should continue for the foreseeable future. He said big projects, such as the US VISIT program for tracking visitors from entry to exit, might get broken up to reduce risk of failure and cost.
Dufault exhorted small companies to partner strategically and quickly with big firms with experience and resources likely to compete for larger contracts. He said technology accounts for $5.3 billion of the fiscal 2004 Homeland Security budget, including $1.8 billion for passenger screening and $1.3 billion for baggage screening.
HSARPA recently received about $900 million for fiscal 2004 funding. "I sort of feel like the new kid in town with money," Bolka said. "Where are the slot machines?"
Budget
Senate Debates Key Tech Provisions In Appropriations Bill
by Drew Clark
The Senate on Monday began consideration of an appropriations measure to fund the Commerce, Justice and State departments that differs from the House-passed measure in several key areas of interest to the information technology community.
In a Monday policy statement on the bill, S. 1585, the Bush administration said it "does not support it in its current form" and raised the veto threat over three provisions, including a provision that would reverse the looser media ownership caps that the FCC sanctioned in June.
The administration also objected to the Senate Appropriations Committee's plan to remove the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force (FTTTF) from the FBI and establish the body as a separate agency.
The committee said the body, established in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, was "intended to compensate for profound shortcomings in the Justice Department, particularly FBI, data warehousing, mining and analysis capabilities." Splitting the agency from the FBI was necessary to facilitate cooperation with the departments of Treasury, State, Defense, Health and Human Services, as well as the CIA, said the committee.
The administration countered, "transferring the FTTTF would fracture program management, disintegrate established relationships, and hinder effort to share information with federal, state and local officials."
Other issues of concern to the technology community include funding levels for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). The Senate version would allocate $1.22 billion to the agency, rather than the $1.29 billion allocated by the House when it passed its version, H.R. 2799. Both chambers cut the administration's $1.3 billion recommendation.
Technology businesses have been lobbying for a House floor vote on a separate measure, H.R. 1561, already approved by the House Judiciary Committee, that would take PTO funding levels out of the hands of appropriators.
Technology groups also expressed concern with a section of S. 1585 introduced by California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein that would forbid the U.S. Trade Representative from negotiating in trade agreements with other countries to amend U.S. caps on the entry of foreign nationals. Silicon Valley companies say they continue to need the ability to hire technology workers on visas.
The House-passed H.R. 2799 includes a provision allocating $1.5 million as initial funding for an Antitrust Modernization Commission. It is not present in the Senate bill.
Urged by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the commission was authorized last year but remains unfunded. It would be tasked to consider whether antitrust law needs to be updated in light of global and state enforcement, as well as potentially greater conflict with intellectual property law.
In another difference between the two chambers, the Senate stripped all funding for the Commerce Department's Technology Administration. Under S. 1561, the administration's $8 million request for the agency would be rejected entirely, with the money being applied to both the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Telecommunication and Information Administration.
Some senators also were expected to offer amendments curbing government surveillance powers. Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said they wanted amendments introduced to the appropriations measure.
Spectrum
Administration Disapproves Of Northpoint Funding Language
by Teri Rucker
The Bush administration on Monday urged the Senate to remove a provision from a funding bill that would give Northpoint Technology the right to use spectrum without going through the auction process.
"Interfering with the efficient allocation of federal spectrum licenses by directing the award of licenses to a particular company would undermine the federal auction system and establish a damaging precedent," the administration said in a policy statement.
The provision was added to the appropriations bill for the Commerce, Justice and State departments and is based upon S. 564, which would direct the FCC to assign licenses in the band of spectrum from 12.2 gigahertz to 12.7 gigahertz to allow companies to provide fixed terrestrial services. The legislation stipulates that the services must not interfere with broadcast satellite services, which also are licensed to use the band. Northpoint would benefit from the language.
If lawmakers strip out the language from the funding bill, Northpoint has another shot when the Senate takes up legislation, S. 865, which would reimburse government spectrum users when they are moved to another swath of spectrum to make way for commercial use.
Lobbyists for Northpoint and critics of the spectrum give-away have been blanketing Capitol Hill with their opinions, and it is unclear which side has the votes, sparking letter-writing campaigns last week.
The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association sent a letter to lawmakers last week to correct what the group sees as "the numerous false and misleading assertions made" by Northpoint in earlier communication with policymakers.
Northpoint had argued that the satellite broadcasting industry received its spectrum for free, but the satellite group in its letter sent Thursday argued that EchoStar paid nearly $53 million for its right to use spectrum.
Northpoint fired off a response to the Hill Friday, saying EchoStar is leasing capacity from a fixed satellite service, claiming that the company is using the spectrum without license.
The FCC recently reformed its rules to allow secondary markets for spectrum use, now allowing companies to lease excess capacity from others who have the right to use spectrum. FCC Chairman Michael Powell has urged lawmakers to remove the language, saying in a letter to lawmakers such a policy "could amount to a potential multimillion-dollar government-created giveaway."
The Congressional Budget Office predicts that the auction, scheduled for Jan. 14, could bring as much as $100 million to the U.S. treasury.
Despite the potential $100 million in revenue, lawmakers find the Northpoint position appealing, because the company promises to roll out high-speed Internet services to rural areas and provide competition for subscription television services.
In a hearing on the legislation, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said he was concerned that "unless we pass this legislation, we will never see deployment of this new service."
E-Government
Communications System Proves Challenge For Coast Guard
by Greta Wodele
The U.S. Coast Guard is weathering software glitches in its efforts to roll out a new modernized communication system by 2006.
"The software, which ties it all together ... has been a significant challenge for us and the contractor," said Cmdr. Ed Thiedman, assistant program manager for the project. "We have been focusing on immediate issues at hand ... as we get closer, we will start talking about full production completion by 2006 and if that is attainable."
In September 2002, the Coast Guard awarded a contract to General Dynamics Decision Systems to develop and implement a modernized communication system called Rescue 21. Under the agreement, two initial Coast Guard locations were to test with "full functionality" the software system by September of this year, according to a General Accounting Report (GAO) issued in late September.
In July, the Coast Guard postponed the testing due to software problems with integrating commercial technologies into a software package that would enhance the agency's capability to assist and find boaters in distress, among other activities, said Thiedman.
He also said while the agency and General Dynamics delayed testing in September, it had met "all of the milestones" up until then.
However, the GAO reported the agency has been postponing formal qualification testing and subsequent testing since early 2003, because General Dynamics "had taken longer than expected to obtain developers and subcontractors" for Rescue 21 and software development "continues to take longer than planned."
Rescue 21, which has been in the works since 1997, is to be a short-range communication system with VHF-FM radios, communication towers as well as hardware and software at operation centers. The current system -- much of which was installed in the 1970s -- has several critical deficiencies, said GAO, including gaps in radio coverage, limited direction-finding technology, no digital calling capability, limited interoperability with other systems and no means to secure communication.
The new initiative would allow officials to digitally call on enhanced radio bands, meet interoperability standards to allow communication with other federal and state officials as well as include direction finding, tracking and encryption technology.
In its report, GAO warned the agency that Rescue 21 might not work as specified, because the agency has been compressing and overlapping schedules for testing the technologies.
"When you overlap and compress testing, there is greater risk that you will not test the system to the full extent nor do you have time to resolve defects in software that would be uncovered," GAO's David Powner said during an interview about the report.
Thiedman said the agency is following GAO's recommendation to establish a new schedule for testing and is negotiating with General Dynamics on its timeline. Other factors such as acquiring antenna sites and meeting environmental laws also may delay the schedule, he said.
The Coast Guard has received $182.4 million for the project through fiscal 2003, and the projected funding through fiscal 2007 is expected to reach $569.2 million, according to GAO.
Today's Feature:
Issue of the Week
Senior Writer Ted Leventhal reports that technology-related congressional caucuses continue to flourish during a year in which the Hill calendar is crowded with technology-related legislation.
Every Monday, read the Issue of the Week by Technology Daily staff
|
E-briefs
Courts: The Supreme Court Monday stepped into a dispute between two high-tech competitors, agreeing to clarify when U.S. companies can be ordered to release confidential records to foreign regulators. Intel is fighting an appeals court ruling that may force it to release documents to the European Commission, which has conducted a preliminary investigation of Intel, based on an antitrust complaint by rival Advanced Micro Devices. Intel is supported in its appeal by business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers. They argue that the appeals court decision gives foreign companies an opportunity to seek supersensitive information about policies and strategies of U.S. competitors. Also, the court will hear its first cases arising from the government's anti-terrorism campaign following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, agreeing today to consider whether foreigners held at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba should have access to U.S. courts.
Antitrust: Though the trial is poised to begin, Microsoft is still looking to settle its antitrust case with the European Union, AP reports. "Microsoft remains committed to finding a constructive resolution to the case that addresses any concerns of the (European) Commission while preserving the company's ability to innovate and to improve its products," the company said. Microsoft has been accused of illegally extending the dominance of its Windows operating systems into the server market; the company contends there is "extensive evidence" to suggest that European consumers have a choice when it comes to operating systems and servers. A three-day hearing kicks off Wednesday, though a decision is not expected until next year. Microsoft could face up to $3 billion in fines and the outcome will set the legal standards that will apply globally to Microsoft.
Antitrust: Microsoft asked a California judge to reject all antitrust settlement claims filed with digital signatures after an announcement that MSfreePC, the service that helps file the digital claims, plans to donate 10 percent of those profits to a competing operating-system platform. "Microsoft is protesting the same technology that people use to file federal and state taxes, order billions of dollars of merchandise online and that they themselves have used to generate billions in profits," said Michael Robertson, CEO of Lindows.com and sponsor of the filing service. Microsoft asked the judge to throw out the claims on the grounds that they do not comply with the settlement claims and procedures.
Taxes: The IRS said a targeted tax cut for manufacturers approved last month by the Senate Finance Committee would lead to more taxpayer disputes with the IRS, add substantially to its enforcement burden and may not provide significant benefits for small businesses, according to an analysis IRS Commissioner Mark Everson sent to the Joint Tax Committee last week. The legislation sponsored by Finance Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Max Baucus, D-Mont., would provide a deduction to U.S. companies, amounting to a 3 percent rate cut, for activities defined as "production" under the bill. The IRS maintains that companies will rush to shift income that does not qualify to the new "production" category, and it will need new audit resources to prevent it. In a similar vein of criticism, Finance members Don Nickles, R-Okla., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., added dissenting views to the committee report on the tax legislation, filed last Friday.
R&D: A group of Republican lawmakers in the House sent a letter last week to House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas, urging the California Republican to extend the research and development tax credit. The R&D credit is expected to expire in June. "As you formulate plans to deal with the expiring provisions of the tax code, we ask that you also include an extension for the R&D credit," the letter said, including changes made to the current credit that are in H.R. 463. That bill would permanently extend the R&D credit and would offer an alternate simplified credit for certain research expenses. Lawmakers who signed the letter are Reps. Sherwood Boehlert and Amo Houghton, both of New York, Nancy Johnson of Connecticut, Vernon Ehlers of Michigan and Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida.
On the Hill: The House Commerce Committee's Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee scheduled a hearing for Nov. 19 on digital dividends. The subcommittee will look explore ways to encourage and leverage investment in technology, including dividends. Witnesses have not been announced.
Executive Branch: The next meeting of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee will be Tuesday at Noesis in Arlington, Va., on "The New Health Care: How Information Technology is Transforming America's Health Care System." John Marburger, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Jonathan Javitt, co-chair of the committee's biomedical research and healthcare delivery subcommittee, will open the meeting with brief remarks. Presentations will delivered by Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health; Mark McClellan, U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner; Jonathan Perlin, deputy undersecretary for health with the Veterans Health Administration; and others. The meeting will close with a general discussion and public comments.
E-Commerce: A federal judge refused to reinstate a license taken from Rx Network for its practice of filling online prescription orders for diet pills without a doctor's visit, AP reports. The state of Florida has gone after Rx Network without success since March 2002, but the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) recently pursued civil action against the pharmacy and managed to shut it down. The DEA had warned the company, but Rx Network ignored the notices, insisting the DEA did not have authority in the matter since many states did not require face-to-face visits for prescriptions. Instead, Rx Network filled prescriptions sent to them from Web sites and approved by doctors based on Internet questionnaires. These forms "had no ability to detect fraud and in fact helped consumers commit fraud," ruled U.S. District Judge William Zloch on Monday. The ruling is a "stamp of approval," said a DEA spokesman.
Intellectual Property: Berklee College of Music and Creative Commons announced Monday that they would offer free online music lessons at BerkleeShares.com -- digital files made available for download on the Internet and peer-to-peer networks -- under a Creative Commons license. The program launches with 80 music lessons consisting of digital music and video files from the school, which is also encouraging other musicians to share such lessons online. Dave Kusek, Berklee associate vice president, said: "Offering free education on the Internet and through file sharing networks underscores the college's core beliefs that these channels are an effective way to openly distribute meaningful educational content to a global audience." Creative Commons Executive Director Glenn Otis Brown compared the project to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's free online course material, which also uses a Creative Commons license. The Berklee license permits non-commercial sharing of the lessons.
|
