Department of Homeland Security Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2011

S. HRG. 111–811 DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2011 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON S. 3607 AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HOME- LAND SECURITY FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2011, 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.gpo.gov/fdsys U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 54–971 PDF WASHINGTON : 2011 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, http://bookstore.gpo.gov. For more information, contact the GPO Customer Contact Center, U.S. Government Printing Office. Phone 202–512–1800, or 866–512–1800 (toll-free). E-mail, [email protected]. COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii, Chairman ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri TOM HARKIN, Iowa MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama HERB KOHL, Wisconsin JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire PATTY MURRAY, Washington ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota SUSAN COLLINS, Maine MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio JACK REED, Rhode Island LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey BEN NELSON, Nebraska MARK PRYOR, Arkansas JON TESTER, Montana ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania CHARLES J. HOUY, Staff Director BRUCE EVANS, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire PATTY MURRAY, Washington RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska JON TESTER, Montana ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania Professional Staff CHARLES KIEFFER CHIP WALGREN SCOTT NANCE DRENAN E. DUDLEY CHRISTA THOMPSON SUZANNE BENTZEL REBECCA DAVIES (Minority) CAROL CRIBBS (Minority) Administrative Support KATIE BATTE (Minority) (II) CONTENTS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2010 Page Department of Homeland Security ......................................................................... 1 TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 2010 Department of Homeland Security: U.S. Coast Guard ......................................... 133 Nondepartmental Witnesses ................................................................................... 167 (III) DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2011 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2010 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 2 p.m., in room SD–192, Dirksen Sen- ate Office Building, Hon. Robert C. Byrd (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Byrd, Leahy, Murray, Landrieu, Voinovich, Cochran, Brownback, and Murkowski. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY STATEMENT OF HON. JANET NAPOLITANO, SECRETARY OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD Senator BYRD. Good afternoon. The subcommittee will be in order. Secretary Napolitano, you lead a Department of 219,000 men and women who are on the front line every day protecting our citizens. We commend those employees for their service. We welcome you to the subcommittee today. I also welcome Senator George Voinovich, our ranking member. I look forward to working with all of our subcommittee members this year. Secretary Napolitano, I thank you for your service to the Nation. You took on a Department with many challenges. We share the common goal of working to secure the homeland while striving to protect the rights and the liberties that our Founding Fathers set forth in the Constitution. Recently you submitted to the Congress the first quadrennial homeland security review, A Strategic Framework for a Secure Homeland, and the review lays out a thoughtful strategy that details five core missions for the Department. I am pleased to say that these five missions are very similar to the missions that the committee approved last year. Now, it is our responsibility to align those missions with the resources necessary to accomplish those missions. Quoting from the Strategic Framework—and I quote—‘‘We have learned as a Nation that we must maintain a constant, capable, and vigilant posture to protect ourselves against new threats and evolving hazards.’’ As I review the details of the President’s budget, I find significant gaps between the mission assignments stated in the Strategic (1) 2 Framework and the resources requested in the President’s budget. The budget includes a modest increase of 2.6 percent for the De- partment with most of the increase provided to the Transportation Security Administration in response to the December 25 attempted attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. While the proposed increases for checkpoint explosives technology and additional Federal Air Marshals may be appropriate, it is an example of responding to the latest threat rather than anticipating future threats. The fiscal year 2011 budget does not request the resources necessary to allow the Department to be nimble. You remember—the old poem, Jack Be Nimble and Jack Be Quick?—to be nimble in responding to known vulnerabilities as well as to future threats. The President proposes to reduce funding critical to maintaining the ability of the Coast Guard to secure our ports, interdict illegal migrants and illegal drugs, and to save lives. To save lives. The budget proposes to reduce the number of Border Patrol agents and reduce our ability to secure containers shipped from overseas. The budget proposes status quo funding—status quo funding— for programs that address known vulnerabilities such as cyber security, bioterrorism, port security, and transit security. Last year, with your leadership, the President requested significant resources—significant resources—for homeland security. I was pleased the Congress sent to him a bipartisan bill that the Presi- dent signed in October. And I look forward to working with you again this year. I hope that we will have your support in identi- fying ways to improve upon the fiscal year 2011 budget so that necessary resources are available to meet the mission requirements es- tablished in your Strategic Framework. Finally, I appreciate the Department’s efforts through FEMA to help my State as West Virginians dig out from the tremendous amount of snow that fell this year. I support Governor Joe Manchin’s request for Federal assistance in response to the Decem- ber snowstorm, and I look forward to working with you to ensure that the February storms that packed a one-two punch are handled appropriately. Following Senator Voinovich’s opening remarks, we will hear from Secretary Napolitano. After we hear from the Secretary, each member will be recognized by seniority for up to 7 minutes for remarks and questions. Now, I recognize Senator Voinovich for any opening remarks that he may wish to make. STATEMENT OF SENATOR GEORGE V. VOINOVICH Senator VOINOVICH. Thank you, Chairman Byrd. I am pleased to join you today in welcoming our witness, the Secretary of Home- land Security, Janet Napolitano. I appreciate your being here today, Madam Secretary, to provide your insights on the Department’s priorities as we begin the fiscal year 2011 appropriations process. I enjoyed our recent meeting, and I look forward to a continuing dialogue on improving the man- agement of the Department of Homeland Security. These last few months have presented a number of challenges for you and all of your Department’s employees. 3 For fiscal year 2011, the President’s total discretionary request for the Department is $43.6 billion. This is a 3 percent increase from the fiscal year 2010 level. To put this in a different context, this is a $13.5 billion, or a 45 percent, increase from the first appropriations act that funded the Department in fiscal year 2004. A 45 percent increase in 8 years. We are quickly approaching the time when we will have doubled the resources of your Department. Increased security requirements as a result of 9/11, including land, border, cargo, transportation, and maritime security, have led to Federal spending without offsets or revenue increases to pay for it. In other words, during this last period of time, we have increased the budget 45 percent, but we have not asked the Amer- ican people to come up with any more money to pay for it, on top of everything else that many of those agencies that formed the De- partment did—I think it was 22 of them. Given all the new requirements brought about by 9/11, in my opinion, I think we should have asked the American people to help pay for it. The Congressional Budget Office projects that if current laws and policies remain unchanged, the Federal budget would show a deficit of about $1.3 trillion for fiscal year 2010, with projected deficits averaging about $600 billion per year over the next 10 years. Now, this is not sustainable. If we are not careful, we will not have any money for anything. These continuing deficits will push the debt to increasingly high- er levels. It is interesting that foreign creditors now own roughly half of our debt, China being lead among them. Proverbs teaches, chapter 22, verse 7: ‘‘The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower is the servant to the lender.’’ I am very con- cerned about it. So, Secretary Napolitano, given all our debt, do we really need to make some of the investments your budget calls for? The budget request reflects a response to events of the last few months, but it is not clear to me that all these investments are wise ones. Why is it a budget priority to invest almost $500 million in new ma- chines and personnel at the TSA just because the Christmas Day bomber boarded a plane in Amsterdam? What is really wrong with the current system? The folks in Cleveland did not believe the new machine piloted added to their ability.

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