S. HRG. 108–705 Senate Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations Department of Homeland Security Fiscal Year 2005 108th CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION H.R. 4567/S. 2537 DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES Department of Homeland Security, 2005 (H.R. 4567/S. 2537) S. HRG. 108–705 DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON H.R. 4567/S. 2537 AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HOME- LAND SECURITY FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2005, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES Department of Homeland Security Nondepartmental witnesses Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 92–149 PDF WASHINGTON : 2004 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS TED STEVENS, Alaska, Chairman THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky TOM HARKIN, Iowa CONRAD BURNS, Montana BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama HARRY REID, Nevada JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire HERB KOHL, Wisconsin ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah PATTY MURRAY, Washington BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota LARRY CRAIG, Idaho DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois MIKE DEWINE, Ohio TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana JAMES W. MORHARD, Staff Director LISA SUTHERLAND, Deputy Staff Director TERRENCE E. SAUVAIN, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi, Chairman TED STEVENS, Alaska ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama TOM HARKIN, Iowa JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado HERB KOHL, Wisconsin LARRY CRAIG, Idaho PATTY MURRAY, Washington Professional Staff REBECCA DAVIES LES SPIVEY JAMES HAYES CAROL CRIBBS KIMBERLY NELSON CHARLES KIEFFER (Minority) CHIP WALGREN (Minority) ALEXA SEWELL (Minority) SCOTT NANCE (Minority) Administrative Support AVERY FORBES (II) CONTENTS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2004 Page Department of Homeland Security ......................................................................... 1 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2004 Department of Homeland Security: Office of the Under Secretary for Emer- gency Preparedness and Response ..................................................................... 141 TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2004 Department of Homeland Security ......................................................................... 189 TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2004 Department of Homeland Security ......................................................................... 295 TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 2004 Department of Homeland Security ......................................................................... 357 TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2004 Department of Homeland Security ......................................................................... 465 Nondepartmental Witnesses ................................................................................... 571 (III) DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2004 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 10:02 a.m., in room SD–106, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Thad Cochran (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Cochran, Stevens, Specter, Domenici, Gregg, Craig, Byrd, Inouye, Leahy, Harkin, Mikulski, Kohl, and Murray. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY STATEMENT OF HON. TOM RIDGE, SECRETARY OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR THAD COCHRAN Senator COCHRAN. The hearing of our committee will please come to order. Today we begin our review of the fiscal year 2005 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security. I am pleased to welcome to the hearing the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Secu- rity, the Honorable Tom Ridge. Under the Secretary’s leadership, this new department, which became operational not quite 1 year ago, has undertaken the chal- lenge to improve the safety and security of the United States. Merging some 180,000 employees from 22 separate agencies into a new department has been a very challenging endeavor. Recent events have underscored our awareness that challenges still lie ahead as the department continues its work to prevent terrorism, to reduce the Nation’s vulnerability to terrorist acts, and to in- crease our disaster response capabilities. While we all understand that more will be done, the administra- tion with the active support of this committee and the Congress is succeeding to improve our intelligence-gathering capabilities; achieve a greater degree of coordination and cooperation among all those involved in homeland security; develop and deploy new detec- tion technologies; and heighten security of our borders, ports, transportation systems, and other critical infrastructure. We will review this year’s budget request and work with you, Mr. Secretary, to provide the resources the department requires to manage its responsibilities and to successfully carry out its mis- sion. For fiscal year 2005, the President’s budget requests $40.2 bil- lion to fund programs and activities of the department, including (1) 2 mandatory and discretionary appropriations, user fee collections, and trust funds. At this point, I am very pleased to yield to other senators on the committee, first to my distinguished friend from West Virginia, who is the ranking Democrat on this subcommittee, Senator Byrd, for any statements he might wish to make. STATEMENT OF SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD Senator BYRD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, my colleagues on the committee, and welcome, Mr. Secretary. As we approach the 1-year anniversary of the creation of the De- partment of Homeland Security, this subcommittee will be holding a series of hearings on the President’s request for your agency. These hearings will focus not just on the budget request for the de- partment, but also on the effectiveness of the department in using the resources that have been available to it to make this country safer. I look forward to your testimony on efforts to secure the homeland by other Federal agencies, by State, regional, and local governments, and by the private sector. ALERT LEVEL CHANGE On Sunday, December 21, you raised the Nation’s terror alert level to orange. In justifying this action you said, and I quote, ‘‘The strategic indicators, including Al Qaeda’s continued desire to carry out attacks against our homeland, are perhaps greater now than at any point since September 11.’’ In explaining why you thought there was a high risk of terrorist attack, you said, and I quote, ‘‘In- formation indicates that extremists abroad are anticipating near- term attacks that they believe will rival or exceed the scope and impact of those that we experienced in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania 2 years ago.’’ That was a pretty sobering assessment. When I read your testi- mony, I note that the President claims he is seeking a 10-percent increase for your department. I thought perhaps the administration had finally gotten the message that it was time to back up the President’s rhetoric on homeland security with real resources. FISCAL YEAR 2005 BUDGET INCREASE But, Mr. Secretary, I was disappointed to learn that when one looks at the details in the President’s budget, the 10-percent in- crease is just another puffed-up gimmick. The fact is that the De- partment of Homeland Security receives only a 4-percent proposed increase in discretionary spending, only slightly more than enough to cover inflation and the 2005 pay raise. In the fiscal year 2004 Homeland Security Appropriations Act, Congress approved advanced appropriations of $2.5 billion for Project BioShield for the period from fiscal year 2005 to fiscal year 2008. In your budget presentation, you include the entire $2.5 bil- lion as 2005 spending, despite the fact that those funds are sup- posed to last 4 years. Your own budget documents show that you expect to spend only $890 million of the $2.5 billion in fiscal year 2005. After adjusting the budget request for that gimmick, the increase in the fiscal year 3 2005 budget is only 4 percent. So that means that the President is seeking a 4-percent increase when you believe that the threat of another terrorist attack is higher than at any time since September 11. I share the view, Mr. Secretary, that this Nation is at risk of more terrorist attacks. We continue to be vulnerable to a wide range of potential threats. On December 15, 2003, the advisory panel to assess domestic response capabilities for terrorists involv- ing weapons of mass destruction issued their final report. The panel, which was headed by the former Republican Governor of Virginia, James Gilmore, concluded that the department must learn from history without falling into