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Federal Funding for Homeland Security 1 (April 2004)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo8315 and id is 1 raw text is: A series of issue summaries from the Congressional Budget Office APRIL 30, 2004 Federal Funding for Homeland Security The tragic events of September 11, 2001, have brought increased Congressional and public interest in federal spending for homeland security. Funding for those activi- ties is split among 200 different appropriation accounts within the federal budget and involves many different functional areas of the government. Furthermore, most of the funding resides within accounts that primarily fi- nance programs that are not classified as homeland secu- rity activities. That accounting arrangement makes it dif- ficult for budget analysts to distinguish and track homeland security spending. Most of the current data on funding for homeland secu- rity are provided in annual reports to the Congress by the Administration's Office of Management and Budget (0MB). Largely on the basis of those reports, the Con- gressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that federal re- sources dedicated to homeland security activities will to- tal about $41 billion in 2004 roughly double the amount allotted to those activities before September 11.1 For 2005, the Administration has proposed increasing homeland security funding to $47 billion, or about 14 percent above the current level (see Table 1). What Is Homeland Security? Any discussion of homeland security is usefully accompa- nied by a clear definition, particularly because there is some confusion and disagreement about what the topic encompasses. The executive branch's publications define homeland security as a concerted national effort to pre- vent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occuri2 The ac- tivities that make up that national initiative are divided into six mission areas: 0 Intelligence and warning-Includes efforts to detect and monitor potential threats before attacks occur within the United States. Most of those efforts are car- ried out by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 1. All years referred to in this brief are fiscal years. Border and transportation security-Encompasses air- line security and inspection of cargo at points of entry into the United States to prevent unwanted individu- als or weapons from entering the country. Those activ- ities are performed primarily by DHS's Border and Transportation Security Directorate, which encom- passes the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA (created in November 200 1), and the entities that previously constituted the Immigration and Nat- uralization Service and the Customs Service. Domestic counterterrorism-Consists largely of federal law enforcement and investigative activities that center on identifying and apprehending terrorists. Primary responsibility for those activities rests with the Depart- ment of Justice's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Protection of critical infrastructure and key assets-In- cludes ensuring the physical security of national land- marks and critical infrastructure (for example, bridges and power plants) as well as the physical security of federal buildings and installations. The Department of Defense (DoD) receives the largest share of funding for this purpose. Defense against catastrophic threats-Entails efforts to prevent terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass de- struction (chemical, biological, or nuclear) and activi- ties to mitigate the effects of such weapons if they are used. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) carries out most of those tasks. 2. See Office of Homeland Security, The National Strategy for Home- land Security (July 2002), p. 2, available at www.whitehouse.gov/ homeland/book/index.html; Office of Management and Budget, 2003 Report to Congress on Combating Terrorism (September 2003), available at www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/2003- combat terr.pdf; and Office of Management and Budget, Budget

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