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Release Date: 02/02/04 00:00:00
Secretary Ridge addresses the press on the FY05 budget.
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
February 2, 2004
SECRETARY RIDGE: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us this afternoon. It is my pleasure today to report to you on the President's proposed budget for Homeland Security for the coming fiscal year.
Now, whether you are planning for your family's monthly expenses, assessing your small business' balance sheet or managing the complex federal appropriations process, a budget is a statement of priorities. And the statement of this budget is very clear; protecting the homeland continues to be a critical priority for this Administration.
In his State of the Union address, the President said that the vigilance of the Department of Homeland Security was protecting America. Of course, we all know that it takes more than just vigilance; it takes resources as well.
And the President has backed up his words with action. Once again, he has affirmed his commitment to protect America by giving the Department of Homeland Security the resources we need to pursue our critical mission. His budget for the Department includes $40.2 billion in new resources for fiscal year '05, a ten percent increase above the current year's level.
In the short history of this Department, America has already benefited from vast increases in our budget, continuing a trend that began as our country responded to new threats of terrorism that emerged on September 11th, 2001. And we have been putting these resources to use in defense of our country, our freedoms and our families.
Thanks to the new layered protections on land, sea and air, our nation is more secure today than ever before. And of course, there is still plenty we must do. Increases in the fiscal year '05 budget will allow us to expand and improve existing projects and programs as well as build new barriers to terrorists who wish us harm.
Let me touch briefly on a couple of areas where specific increases in our resources will help us continue to make progress at our borders, in our skies, on our waterways and throughout the nation.
To further strengthen our border and port security, this budget includes an additional $411 million more than the fiscal year '04 for our Customs and Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Coast Guard.
As you all know, we recently launched the U.S.-VISIT program at 115 airports and 14 seaports across the country to help ensure that our borders remain open to legitimate travel and trade but closed to terrorists.
That program has been very successful, processing more than 900,000 legitimate passengers since the beginning of the year and matching 89 potential entrants against criminal watch lists.
Therefore, it's not surprising this budget provides a total of $340 million, $12 million more than this year, to continue expanding the U.S.-VISIT program to include land borders and additional seaports. This will keep America's borders open and our nation secure.
However, we realize that potential enemies will not always arrive at the customs checkpoint. That is why we have more than $64 million to enhance monitoring efforts along the border and between our ports of entry.
In addition, we have also requested an increase of $186 million to provide additional capacity to enforce our immigration policies.
We are also pushing our perimeter of security outward, making sure that our borders are the last line of defense and not the first.
The Container Security Initiative, for example, focuses on pre-screening cargo before it reaches our ports, and this budget includes the $101 million recurring base for the program and another $25 million to enhance presence at existing ports and to begin the final phase of CSI, especially in high-risk areas around the world.
Also, the Coast Guard's budget will increase by nine percent in discretionary spending, which includes funding for the continuation of their Integrated Deepwater System and important new resources of more than $100 million to implement the Maritime Transportation Security Act.
One of the areas of greatest concern since September 11th, of course, has been aviation. And thus it continues to be an area of high priority for our budget, with an increase of 20 percent this year for aviation security.
The Transportation Security Administration will receive an additional $890 million to continue to improve the quality and the efficiency of the screening process.
Also, considerable funds will be available to continue the research and deployment of air cargo screening technology as well as accelerate the development of technologies that counter the threat of portable anti-aircraft missiles.
Now, while we have seen the havoc possible, the terror possible, when aircraft are used as weapons, we have yet to experience the full impact of a bioterror attack, and may we never have to do so.
But we must be prepared. And it's certainly in that spirit that Secretary Tommy Thompson and I announced last week a $274 million Bio-Surveillance Program designed to protect the nation against bioterrorism and to strengthen the public health infrastructure.
The initiative will enhance ongoing surveillance programs for human health, hospitals, vaccines, food supply, state and local preparedness and environmental monitoring, and integrating them into one comprehensive system.
In addition, the budget for Project BioShield has been increased by 186 percent to allow the federal government to pre-purchase much needed vaccines for the Strategic National Stockpiles.
As I have said many times in the past, more money needs to be directed toward areas with greater security needs. So I am pleased that this budget increases the amount for the Urban Area Initiative by more than 60 percent. The total first responder funding adds another $3.65 billion to the more than $8 billion we have made available since March 1st of last year.
Now, these are just a few of the important initiatives included in this year's budget and I am sure there are several others that you have questions about. Before we get to the Q & A, let me leave you with one final thought.
When you prepare a budget, nothing helps more than getting a raise. At home, it means that you can replace something that is old or worn-out, or purchase something new that you've always wanted.
For homeland security, a raise means we can take additional steps to increase and improve measures that we already have in place and add to them additional programs that rely on the most advanced technology to keep us safe. That way we can achieve our goal of becoming better prepared and safer each and every day.
Across the entire government, homeland security, including DHS and several partner agencies, received a generous 9.7 percent increase this year. We are going to make every single dollar count, so that we can continue to enjoy the opportunities of freedom so readily available in our country.
We have made measurable, visible progress during our first year of work. The President's budget maintains the momentum we have established, sustains and expands first year initiatives and provides additional financial support as we develop new means to defend and to protect our country.
Thank you very much. Questions, please.
QUESTION: Sir, according to this budget document, in fiscal 2004, you devoted $10 million to integrating the terrorist watch lists, but for fiscal 2005, it appears that no dollars are committed to that from this budget. Is that money coming from somewhere else, or what is the status there?
SECRETARY RIDGE: Well, first of all the, as you know, there are other agencies that have received substantial increases, and the FBI was one of them, and they're very much a player in the integration of the databases.
Secondly, we think the integration of the, all the databases for the Terrorist Screening Center will be done by the middle of this year, so the additional cost associated with that integration has already been covered.
And again, we do have some flexibility and reprogram ability if there are more databases that we need to integrate. But I think everybody's comfortable right now that there are adequate resources spread around the necessary departments in order to get it done.
Yes.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, if I could be rude enough to go off budget for a moment.
SECRETARY RIDGE: I wonder what this question's going to be about.
QUESTION: The -- there was a new threat alert over the weekend, very specific apparently, to certain flights, certain routes, certain airports.
SECRETARY RIDGE: Yeah.
QUESTION: You didn't feel the need to raise the overall threat level, but I'm curious how you can be sure that you're not being toyed with. How can you be sure this was not a disinformation campaign? Because of course, if you start canceling flights and they're not even doing anything, it's a pretty cheap threat for them.
SECRETARY RIDGE: Well, as you've highlighted, we did have several flights that were canceled this weekend, both domestic and international. So I think it's important to just go back about a month ago when from similar credible sources, they identified dates and flight numbers. It was at that point in time we began to engage our international partners on the kind of conversations we would have if a similar threat reporting occurred in the future. Fast-forward after the holiday season to a couple of days ago where we got very specific information concerning when and what flights. It didn't quite have the specificity with regard to the nature of attack, but there was certainly enough credibility associated with the when and where, the date and the flight, that we engaged in those conversations.
And as we discussed potential mitigating circumstances, mitigating factors, we decided it was in the public's interest, we agreed it was in the public's interest to cancel those flights.
But trying to put this in a broader context, if you will, I dare say that today there will probably be dozens of flights canceled, for mechanical reasons, or weather. And the reason the airlines do that is for public safety. And it is in the nature within our conversations with foreign and domestic carriers that over the past weekends, we decided that, given the nature of the threat, the specificity of the threat, that it was best to cancel those flights, public safety being the highest priority.
Yes, Pete.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, are we through this period now? When we get past today, will things get more or less back to normal?
SECRETARY RIDGE: I wish I could predict. I can't. Obviously, what I've seen is an expansion over the months of our ability to get more and more information about potential terrorist planning and potential attacks. On a day-to-day basis, one of the most difficult jobs in town is basically distinguishing between that which may be a specific threat and that which is just occasion to give us disinformation and make us react to it. That's a task that hundreds of people have to engage in on a day-to-day basis.
So I wish I could look into a crystal ball and say it's not going to happen again. I can't do that. But what I can say based on previous experience, is that when it does happen again, our relationship with foreign carriers and foreign countries around this kind of threat is getting better and better and we will continue to develop and, I think, improve on protocols, not only in terms of information shared but how we respond to particular kind of threats.
Yes.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I'm asking about the Office of Domestic Preparedness and grants for the state and local first responders.
SECRETARY RIDGE: Yes.
QUESTION: There's actually, aside from the Urban Area Initiative that you mentioned, which is increasing, the overall amount for those grants is actually decreasing from what you requested for this year. Would you please talk about the rationale behind decreasing those grants at this time?
SECRETARY RIDGE: Well, probably, I don't know what column you added up, what column I added up -- I think we're a little bit ahead of what the President requested last year, not necessarily what the Congress enacted.
But you will notice a strategic shift from resources that go out to the states based on formula to resources, and that's through ODP and the Urban Area Security Initiative, that go out to regions where we have basically an algorithm that says, let's look at population, population density; let's look at critical infrastructure and let's examine the threat.
So there is a shift of considerable resources from the basic formula program to a more targeted approach based on threat and potential catastrophic economic or human loss.
Sir.
QUESTION: As you know -- you highlighted Project BioShield -- and as you know, the program has been, has not been authorized, although money has been appropriated for the current fiscal year. For this fiscal --
SECRETARY RIDGE: That's why I always wanted to be on the Appropriations Committee when I was in Congress.
(Laughter.)
QUESTION: Do you -- do you feel that you can go ahead and spend the money for '04, even though that program hasn't been authorized?
SECRETARY RIDGE: Well, we're very sensitive to the understandable legislative mission of the authorizing committees and the appropriation committees. I understand that the authorizers are still going to try to authorize it. I suspect that if we need to pull on that source of funds because of an emergency, no one in Congress would object. But we're hopeful that the accompanying authorizing legislation can be passed at some time. But we believe under an emergency, we can use the appropriated dollars.
Sir.
QUESTION: Does the fact that U.S.-VISIT is appropriated on an annual basis rather than the -- having the entire program funded all at once pose any problems for implementation? And what is U.S.-VISIT, the appropriations you're receiving for 2005, what is that going to focus on in terms of moving VISIT forward?
SECRETARY RIDGE: Well, I think, as I mentioned in my earlier remarks, we do have more work to do with regard to the land borders. And I think it will be a continued refinement of that system. Right now, we take photographs and fingerprints. There's still the need to consolidate, to connect that system with the databases that we are consolidating around the government.
So I believe there will be continued technological refinements of that system and as we all know, protecting -- identifying and confirming that the individuals that get the visas are the ones who submit them at the port of entry is a critical piece of assuring, of adding security to this country.
So again, it will be probably more technological resources than anything else so there may be a few additional people involved in that.
To the back. Sir?
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, how much of the domestic preparedness money would you like to see targeted to New York and the other high-risk cities?
SECRETARY RIDGE: How much?
QUESTION: How much of the domestic preparedness funding would you like to see targeted --
SECRETARY RIDGE: Well, we made a recommendation in our budget and we'll just have to work with Congress to see whether or not the strategic shift that we have recommended is something that they're comfortable with. I mean, it's a -- we have obviously, taking the dollars that go out in an outright formula -- a system that's driven by formula, been shifted to a regional approach based on population infrastructure and threat.
So again, we know -- we have proposed that we use these dollars in this fashion. We'll just have to work with the Hill and see how the balance ends up at the end of the day.
To the rear. Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Yes, Mr. Secretary, one follow-up on that. There was -- there's actually more grants now consolidated in the ODP, so we're talking about a (inaudible) of over $100 million in money that's going to first responders who are the people who are going to have to deal with the consequences of any terrorist attack. How do you -- how do you justify that?
SECRETARY RIDGE: Well, first of all, let's try to put this all in perspective. If you took all the money available to first responders in fiscal year '01 -- from '99, '00 and '01, those three years, and you aggregated it, and then you took all the money available to first responders, not only with our Department, through the other departments, from '02 through '04, it's been a 900 percent increase. There are still literally billions and billions of dollars to be distributed. And again, I think that as we receive, from the states and the territories, this is the first year we're going to have a strategic plan -- we've got money out, billions more to be distributed, and you add on top of that 3.5 additional dollars, which is on top of a 900 percent increase, I think that's adequate dollars. And one of our challenges now we have in this Administration and around the country, is to make sure that we're getting a return on the investment.
So we now begin the notion this year of following those dollars and making sure that the strategic security return on that, that the (inaudible) had been met.
So again, we're -- may be off -- my calculation may be a little bit different than yours. We wanted to be at least in a position to suggest to the Congress and to the Hill, suggest to the Hill we wanted as much money in this year's budget as last year's.
We did want to consolidate them because one of the other things that the state and locals and the first responders wanted was a one-stop shop. They also wanted a template so they could develop their strategic plans; we've done that. They also wanted us to take a look at the strategic plans, all of which were due to be submitted by today, and I believe just about all of them are in.
We're going to take a look at those plans, determine what the common needs and the common threads, and then as we put the '05 dollars out the window, we're going to create a menu; it'll be a la carte, but we're going to restrict a little bit this year what those dollars -- how they can be expended so we can build basic infrastructure around the country.
QUESTION: Can I just follow-up, sir? When the fire grant, for example, was put in ODP --
SECRETARY RIDGE: Right.
QUESTION: -- a number of the firefighters' organizations did express concern that this would basically mean that they would be the core (inaudible), and I mean, it's been cut by nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, I think. And, I mean, weren't their fears justified?
SECRETARY RIDGE: Well, no, listen, I've had a good meeting last week with the International Association of Fire Chiefs. And we had a chat about it being moved into ODP. They're quite comfortable with it. They understand that we appreciate the unique nature of that system. It has peer review. They wanted to make sure that we continue to maintain peer review and that it would be a separate source of funding. And we've agreed to do both; a separate source, it's untouchable and continued with a peer review.
Sir, and then I'll get back to you. Yes.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, how much is the Government outside of the Department of Homeland Security spending on homeland security missions?
SECRETARY RIDGE: I'll have to have somebody give you the overall figure on that. I don't recall. I think it's in the book and I don't recall it right now. I'm concerned -- I know there's a significant increase. The FBI got a significant increase. Tommy Thompson got more for his Bio-Surveillance part of our mutual package. But I can't give you how much in total but it may be in the book.
The lady behind you. Yes.
QUESTION: If I could ask another question about the flight cancellations. You've devoted a lot of resources to protecting airliners. You've got air marshals, you can inspect cargo, you can do a lot of things. What kind of a threat is there that you can't protect the passengers against without the whole panoply of resources that you're devoting?
SECRETARY RIDGE: Well, under the circumstances, when -- first of all, appreciate the nature of the question, because from the curb to the cockpit, air security is -- and aviation, passenger aviation is far more secure than it has ever been and we're going to continue to make enhancements to it.
But there are times and circumstances under which, given everything that is being discussed among the parties, we reserve, always reserve the right, in spite of all of the precautionary measures that are taken, the ultimate protection of public safety is to cancel the flight. And no matter how many additional things we do and how much more money we spend on aviation security, I believe that should always been an option. And in this instance, it was an option that we chose to exercise.
Pete.
QUESTION: For U.S.-VISIT, 14 -- or $12 million more in '05. Is that going to be -- won't putting U.S.-VISIT at the land borders be just a huge expense? Is that anywhere near what you'll need?
SECRETARY RIDGE: We are looking at a different kind of technology and a different deployment of the U.S.-VISIT system at the land border. And based on projections that we have -- first of all, we've got dollars in the '04 budget, some of which, a lot of which still need to be -- will be expended on top of the '05 budget; we believe we have sufficient dollars in order to get it done.
But stay tuned. There will be a variation on that theme when it comes to the land border and that will explain the cost a little bit better in the future when we get ready to unveil it.
Yes.
QUESTION: Could you explain what the priorities are for the Department in terms of doing assessments of critical infrastructure, both through the rest of '04, but then also in this budget for '05?
SECRETARY RIDGE: The -- first of all, the Information Analysis Infrastructure Protection Unit has literally been working with major sectors of the economy, and -- to develop vulnerability assessment tools so that both the private sector as well as all governments, federal, state and local, can agree on what we consider to be critical infrastructure that needs to be protected.
We've begun -- we tip our hat and give kudos to the financial services and financial institutions sector. They have done quite a bit already on their own. One of the highest priorities we have has been the cyber-security because that obviously cuts across all sectors of our economy. We've begun -- as we develop sector-specific standards and sector-specific vulnerability assessment tools -- we've moved out, I think, very aggressively in the area of chemical and energy facilities. So --
QUESTION: I didn't see in here a specific request for the Homeland Security Advanced Research Project Agency, in the science --
SECRETARY RIDGE: Well, that's covered under the umbrella of Science and Technology. And you'll note, they got a little plus-up this year. It's in excess of a billion dollars. And some of that, again, we have a Science and Technology unit within the Department so some of the -- it might be $20 or $30 million that we're pulling in from other departments because this is really the critical mass of R & D that we have Department-wide.
But it is a -- it's in excess of a billion dollars. And it's under that line item that you'll find it.
SECRETARY RIDGE: Thanks very much.
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For additional information, see the Department of Homeland Security FY 2005 Budget in Brief Fact Sheet or download the entire FY 2005 Budget in Brief.
This page was last reviewed/modified on 02/02/04 00:00:00.