How DHS plans to use stimulus funds

A good summary of DHS stimulus spending from HS Daily Wire:

St. Elizabeths/DHS headquarters consolidation: $200 million, $450 million to GSA

• $650 million ($200 million to DHS; $450 million to GSA)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP): $680 million direct, $300 million to GSA

• $720 million for construction at land ports of entry ($300 million GSA; $420 million CBP)
• $100 million for Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) technology
• $100 million for border technology on the southwest border
• $60 million for tactical communications equipment and radios

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): $20 million

• $20 million for ICE automation modernization and tactical communications

Transportation Security Administration: $1 billion

• $1 billion for explosives detection systems and checkpoint screening equipment

U.S. Coast Guard: $240 million

• $142 million for alteration of bridges program
• $98 million for construction, which may include the following:
  • Shore facilities and aids to navigation facilities
  • Vessel repair/acquisition (includes High Endurance Cutter, National Security Cutter)

Federal Emergency Management Agency: $615 million+

• $100 million for Emergency Food and Shelter Program
• $150 million for transit and rail security grants
• $150 million for port security grants, no non-federal match required
• $210 million for Assistance to Firefighter (AFG) grants for firehouse construction; maximum grant is $15.0 million
• $5 million expansion in authority for FEMA Community Disaster Loans
• Requires the establishment of an arbitration panel to resolve Katrina/Rita public assistance disputes
• Requires FEMA to accept additional applications for Katrina/Rita public assistance
• All non-federal matching requirements for SAFER grants waived for FY 2009-2010

DHS Office of Inspector General: $5 million

• $5 million to conduct related oversight and audits

Total: Based on these numbers, here are the totals:

• $2.76 billion direct to DHS & components
• $750 million to GSA
• $3.5 billion total

• Read the Full Article

New National Infrastructure Protection Plan Released

A new version of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) was released yesterday.

I’ve extracted and attached the full Table of Contents (4 pages) and the Executive Summary (6 pages) as separate documents.  Both are worth reading, if only to identify the parts of the full document you may want to read more closely.  For a super-compact summary, I’ve included a short excerpt from the Preface, and a list of the major sections of the document in this post.

[Update 02/25: DHS Released an "NIPP Consolidated Snapshot" (2 pages), which I've linked to here.]

The Preface to the 2009 NIPP, written by former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, states:

“The NIPP meets the requirements that [President Bush] set forth in Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 7, Critical Infrastructure Identification, Prioritization, and Protection, and provides the overarching approach for integrating the Nation’s many CIKR (Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources) protection initiatives into a single national effort.  It sets forth a comprehensive risk management framework and clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the Department of Homeland Security; Federal Sector-Specific Agencies; and other Federal, State, regional, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector partners implementing the NIPP.”

The NIPP has an Executive Summary, 7 main sections, and 6 appendices:

• Executive Summary
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Authorities, Roles, and Responsibilities
• 3. The Strategy: Managing Risk
• 4. Organizing and Partnering for CIKR Protection
• 5. CIKR Protection as Part of the Homeland Security Mission
• 6. Ensuring an Effective, Efficient Program Over the Long Term
• 7. Providing Resources for the CIKR Protection Program
• Appendix 1: Special Considerations (Cross-Sector Cybersecurity and International CIKR Protection)
• Appendix 2: Summary of Relevant Statutes, Strategies, and Directives
• Appendix 3: The Protection Program
• Appendix 4: Existing Coordination Mechanisms
• Appendix 5: Integrating CIKR Protection as Part of the Homeland Security Mission
• Appendix 6: S&T Plans, Programs, and Research & Development

Event: PS-Prep Public Meeting #2

Sorry for the late notice on this one…  I plan to attend this meeting, and I’ll post an entry after the meeting.

The second of 2 public meetings on PS-Prep, a new DHS voluntary preparedness accreditation and certification program for the private sector, will be held on Monday February 23.  See my original post for more information on PS-Prep.

Date:     Monday, February 23, 2009
Time:     9am - 2:30pm
Location: American Red Cross Ballroom, Hall of Service
          1730 E Street, NW
          Washington, DC 20006
Register: privatesectorpreparedness@hsi.dhs.gov, or
          703-416-8407

• Meeting Announcement in the Federal Register
  
• Original Post
• PS-Prep Announcement in the Federal Register
• PS-Prep comments web site

Event: House HS Hearing with Janet Napolitano

The House Committee on Homeland Security will be having a full committee hearing on Wednesday Feb 25, with DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano as a witness. I may have a chance to attend this hearing in person. If so, I’ll post a separate entry on it after the hearing.

Event:    House Homeland Security, Full Committee Hearing
Date:     Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Time:     10:00am
Location: 311 Canon House Office Building
Witness:  Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security
Register: Registration not needed, but you may want to arrive early to get a seat.

• Hearing information on House HS Committee web site

House passes law to improve sharing of threat information

From the Associated Press:

Legislation passed by the House Tuesday (H.R. 553) would require DHS to produce a declassified version of threat information for state and local first responders who don’t have the security clearance to view classified material.  The measure would also require portion marking, where certain classified parts of a document might be blacked out but the rest of the information would remain unclassified.

Steven Aftergood, a secrecy expert with the Federation of American Scientists, said the Harman bill sends an important message that classification should not be a barrier to keeping local officials informed about threats.  But he said the bill doesn’t cover the CIA or the Pentagon, the biggest sources of classified data. “This is not the systemic change that we need but it is an urgent part of the larger problem and I hope it will elevate classification reform in the administration agenda.”

The bill, which passed by a voice vote, passed the House in the last session of Congress but wasn’t taken up by the Senate.  The bill now goes to the Senate.  I’ll update this post as the bill status changes.

• Full story
• H.R. 553
• Transcript of committee vote

Overview of Napolitano’s Action Directives

In her first 10 days in office, new Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has issued 12 “action directives” focused on specific homeland security areas.  Here’s an overview of all the action directives, including their purpose and a brief look at what they may indicate for Homeland Security policy in the Obama administration.

What is an action directive?

According to the DHS press release, action directives “instruct specific offices and agencies to gather information, review existing strategies and programs, and to provide oral and written reports” by a specified date.  The dates are specified separately for each directive.

So essentially the action directives are reviews of existing programs.  Although the action directives do not direct any changes to the programs under review, the specific areas each directive specifies for review give an indication of programs that may begin seeing changes after the reviews are complete.

List of Action Directives

The list of action directives follows.  I’ve listed all the relevant dates for each directive as [Date issued / date oral presentations due / date written reports due].  I’ve linked each directive in this list to the DHS press release that includes it.

Note: Although the initial press release didn’t give both oral and written dates for the 5 action directives issued on that date, based on the press releases for the other action directives, this appears to be an error, and I’ve made the assumption that all 5 of those directives have the same oral and written response dates.  No date was specified for oral presentations for the last action directive (immigration and border security).

• [Jan 21 / Jan 28 / Feb 10]: Critical Infrastructure Protection
• [Jan 21 / Jan 28 / Feb 10]: Risk analysis
• [Jan 21 / Jan 28 / Feb 10]: State and local information sharing
• [Jan 21 / Jan 28 / Feb 10]: Transportation security
• [Jan 21 / Jan 28 / Feb 10]: State, local, and tribal integration
• [Jan 23 / Feb 03 / Feb 17]: Cyber security
• [Jan 23 / Feb 10 / Feb 17]: Northern border strategy
• [Jan 27 / Feb 09 / Feb 23]: FEMA state and local integration
• [Jan 27 / Feb 09 / Feb 23]: National planning
• [Jan 28 / Feb 10 / Feb 24]: First responder health surge capacity
• [Jan 28 / Feb 10 / Feb 24]: Hurricane Katrina
• [Jan 30 / None / Feb 20]: Immigration and border security

Brief Analysis:

Although immigration and border security was the last action directive issued, it is by far the longest and most specific directive, while at the same time allowing the shortest time between issuance of the directive and due date for the final report.  This may be a reflection of Secretary Napolitano’s experience with immigration, but in any case it indicates a likely increase in emphasis on immigration and border security compared to the previous administration.

The other theme clearly evident in many of the action directives is interoperability and integration, integration, integration.  Napolitano stated during her confirmation hearing that a primary focus under her watch would be integration of DHS agencies into a single cohesive agency, and the action directives reflect that.

• DHS Press Release Jan 21: First 5 action directives
• DHS Press Release Jan 23: Cyber security and Northern border strategy
• DHS Press Release Jan 27: FEMA  state and local integration and National planning
• DHS Press Release Jan 28: First responder health surge capacity and Hurricane Katrina
• DHS Press Release Jan 30: Immigration and border security

New bill calls for quarterly reports from DHS grant recipients

From Government Security News:

A bill that would require recipients of homeland security grants to file quarterly reports to Congress on precisely how they spent those funds has been filed by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and co-sponsored by five other congressmen.

The measure, H.R. 625, was introduced on Jan. 21 and referred to the House Homeland Security Committee. It is intended to provide greater transparency on how DHS grant monies are actually expended.

I’ll update this post when the status changes.

• Full story
• Full text of H.R. 625