By Rob Margetta
Congressional Quarterly
February 24, 2010
The leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee sent a clear message Wednesday to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: If they have their way, her department won’t get the $200 million it has requested for terrorist trials in New York City.
“It’s a safe assumption that Congress is not going to appropriate $200 million to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City,” ranking Republican Susan Collins of Maine told Napolitano during a hearing on President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget request. “It’s not going to happen.”
Chairman Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., noted that he, too, is strongly opposed to New York federal trials for terrorism suspects, including those allegedly involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. Moving the trials, possibly to military commissions, would save money, Lieberman said.
Collins estimated that moving the trial out of New York would cut the required funding for security measures in half.
“There will be costs, but they won’t be $200 million,” she said, clarifying with Napolitano that the budget request is solely for the trial of Mohammed and other Sept. 11 suspects.
But the secretary wouldn’t speculate on how a change in venue might reduce security costs for the trials.
“We are going to have terrorist trials in the United States,” she said. “There are going to be security costs. Those costs need to be estimated somewhere in the federal budget.”
Lieberman and Collins both agreed that the $200 million requested for the trials should not be cut from the department’s fiscal 2011 budget proposal. Instead, they want the department to use it elsewhere, but they were divided on how to spend it.
Lieberman said the funding should go toward grants aimed at improving security in urban areas, while Collins said the money should offset proposed personnel cuts in the Coast Guard budget. The White House suggested eliminating $75 million and 1,100 positions from the agency’s fiscal 2010 levels.
“We will seriously undermine the ability of the Coast Guard . . . if these cuts go forth,” she said. “I can’t believe you really want these cuts for the Coast Guard. I know how highly you value the Coast Guard.”
Collins added that a proposal to decommission five of the 13 Maritime Safety and Security Teams established to protect sensitive coastal areas after Sept. 11, 2001, “makes no sense.”
Napolitano attributed the proposed cuts to the high priority DHS has placed paying for the Coast Guard’s multibillion-dollar effort to revitalize its aging fleet, even in a tight budget year. The secretary said the proposal was crafted with Coast Guard input. Boats from the agency have suffered serious rust damage, and some have holes in their plating, she said.
“They’ve been welded and welded and welded, and at a certain point you need new vessels,” she said.
She added that another factor in the proposed staffing reduction has to do with the Coast Guard’s plans to decommission some of its older boats and replace them with newer, more technologically advanced models that can operate with smaller crews.
Upset Over Cuts
The exchange over the terrorist trials was one example of a recurring theme throughout the hearing: Napolitano defending cuts more often than spending.
Collins and Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del., raised concerns about a proposed $19 million reduction in cybersecurity spending at DHS. Napolitano said the change reflects the elimination of funding for one-time projects and a streamlining of the department’s efforts.
Collins, citing the dire assessment of U.S. cybersecurity capabilities provided by former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell at a Senate hearing Tuesday, said the money needs to stay in the budget.
“When I hear that the cyber budget has been cut by $19 million, it concerns me,” she said, adding that Napolitano’s justification did not allay that concern.
A provision in the budget request to reduce Border Patrol staff by 187 also drew attention. Napolitano said the cuts would amount to a reshuffling of staff — losing training staff and managerial positions. The proposal would not result in a decrease in the number of agents at the Southern border or a failure to meet congressionally mandated staffing levels at the Northern border, Napolitano said.
“We will be making those staffing goals,” she said.
Collins said she was worried about any reduction in Border Patrol numbers.
“Are you reducing the overall level?” she asked.
“Positions,” Napolitano replied. “But not agents at the border.”
Most of the committee members approved of the 3 percent increase in discretionary funding in the request — essentially level funding when factoring in inflation. Lieberman pointed out that the proposed increase is likely dependant on a provision to increase aviation fees. Without such an increase, the chairman said, the DHS budget likely could not keep pace with inflation and developing threats.
“I will support a request to increase aviation fees,” he said.
Contracting in the Crosshairs
Lieberman said he applauds a balanced workforce initiative at DHS aimed at reducing the department’s dependence on contractors. But he also said the documents DHS prepared for the budget process paint a dire picture of the contracting situation there.
“They are astounding and unsettling, because they now say that the department has about as many contractors as federal employees — about 200,000,” he said.
That level of contracting means DHS’s staff is effectively twice what the budget reflects in personnel funding, he said.
“To me, this is a shocking and unacceptable number” because federal employees generally cost less than contractors, Lieberman said.
Napolitano pointed to the fact that DHS was set up relatively quickly, and the use of contractors was a way to fill personnel needs; the hiring process for federal employees is excessively time-consuming, she said Lieberman replied that he understood, but said it was no longer acceptable to avoid hiring long-term federal employees because the process takes so long.
