The Department of Homeland Security looks like it will be spared the worst of the government’s budget cuts—but it still has to balance on the knife’s edge.



By: Mickey McCarter

01/20/2012 (12:00am)




In 2012 and beyond, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be carefully seeking the right mix of technologies to act as force multipliers for its manpower in the field, according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Further, DHS will be careful to abandon projects that don't seem to be working in order to make purchasing more effective and conserve resources in a tight budgetary environment, the secretary said.

“We are really making sure that we are not spending good money after bad,” Napolitano commented. “When we have tried something for a long enough time, we need to have a sense that we have something that works or we don't. And then we must make hard decisions as to when to cut expenditures to conserve resources.”

Napolitano delivered that message on Oct. 11 at a Policy and Research Forum hosted by the Homeland Security Policy Institute and the Homeland Security Defense & Business Council at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Joining Napolitano were former secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff.

Napolitano emphasized that the department must carefully weigh its procurement spending in the next several years.

Up until fiscal year (FY) 2011, DHS received a bigger budget every year, averaging 6 or 7 percent increases over the previous year, Napolitano reflected.

“We are not in that environment now. We are in an environment that is equal to a freeze or a point or two below that—or even in some scenarios 5 percent below that,” she stated. “It has put a premium on evaluating every activity we do and how can we do it more cheaply and effectively. It has meant getting control over our acquisitions process.”

Beginning in FY 2012 DHS will look more to energizing the homeland security enterprise by encouraging state and local governments, as well as private companies and nonprofits, to share the responsibilities of securing US infrastructure and protecting Americans from terrorism and natural disasters. The right mix of participation from homeland security stakeholders would maximize everyone's contract dollars and provide the greatest benefit to the United States, she explained.

That said, DHS has core federal responsibilities and a relatively large budget at its disposal to address them—even in the face of austere times for federal spending.

Congress passed a FY2012 budget for DHS as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act on Dec. 17, 2011. DHS received $39.6 billion in discretionary funding, $2.9 billion below the White House request and $111 million below FY 2011. Border security and transportation security initiatives received increases, with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) getting $11.7 billion, up $362 million from FY2011, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) $7.8 billion, up $153 million.

In that budget, DHS has some new contracting initiatives—particularly in border security, transportation security and information technology (IT)—experts told Homeland Security Today.

Border security

Seeking to maximize its procurement dollars, DHS will pursue some technologies that have applications across multiple program areas, said David Gerritz, defense and homeland security analyst at Deltek Inc., Herndon, Va. For example, DHS agencies will continue to increase their investments in biometric applications that verify the identity of individuals through fingerprints or photographs.

Investment in biometrics supports initiatives in border security and immigration, as well as specific programs such as trusted traveler programs and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12. As such, biometrics and credentialing will see a big push in 2012, Gerritz told Homeland Security Today.

With regard to border security, CBP will seek commercial off-the-shelf technologies to place along the Southwest border in the coming year after its retreat from the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet).

“The new Southwest Border Initiative is extremely critical to DHS, especially following the scrutiny it received after the failure of SBInet,” Gerritz remarked. “With that, DHS is focusing on alternatives to the SBInet plan. It's more of a focus on commercially available technology, which is tailored to the requirements of CBP and the regions in which they are working.”

The mix of technologies sought by CBP will include man-portable detection systems, mobile surveillance systems, and surveillance capabilities like night vision goggles. CBP also will invest in Border Patrol command centers to bolster communications and situational awareness capabilities.

In tandem with upgrades to command centers, CBP will start deploying commercial integrated fixed towers (IFTs). CBP plans to set up IFTs very similar in concept to the ones custom-built for SBInet but focused on available capabilities in communications and sensor technology rather than developing new advanced capabilities.

Gerritz predicted CBP would deploy up to 36 IFTs in three out of five areas designated to receive them with its fiscal 2012 funding.

“With the department's budget down slightly, it must focus on a more simplified approach rather than the larger SBInet and the massive technology investment involved in that,” he said.

But DHS will buy technology to support its security efforts along the northern border as well, said John Hernandez, aerospace and defense analyst at Frost and Sullivan Inc., San Antonio, Texas. CBP particularly will focus on command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) upgrades on the northern border.

“They’re purchasing a lot of new technology, a lot of C4ISR components, especially with their Secure Border Initiative in the north," he told Homeland Security Today. "They still require a lot of investments in connectivity with regard to infrastructure for communications with the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection.”

To date, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, and Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md., have been big players in fielding C4ISR capabilities for DHS. C4ISR priorities include video cameras, motion detectors and datalinks to tie sensors together.

Datalinks from CBP sensors on the northern border to its new operations integration center will become increasingly important as the agency expands its flight operations for unmanned aerial vehicles along the US-Canadian border, Hernandez said. The Coast Guard also is building up its C4ISR capabilities to outfit new aircraft and surface assets.

Transportation security

TSA sought funding to purchase 275 more advanced imaging technology (AIT) devices in FY 2012, but the prospects for more of the whole body imaging devices in US airports this year.

The House approved a budget bill (HR 2017) in early June, specifically denying TSA's request to fund more AIT devices out of a sense that the agency could use more time to staff and operate the devices already in the field. The appropriators reasoned that the agency could therefore sustain a budget cut and delay purchase of additional AIT devices this year. That reasoning did not hold in the final budget compromise, which not only boosted funding for TSA but provided it with money to buy 250 AIT devices.

One sure area of focus for TSA in 2012 is explosives detection technology, Hernandez emphasized. TSA has been seeking to improve its explosives detection expertise by hiring more explosives ordnance disposal (EOD) personnel from the US military.

“I know individuals in the EOD world that are being picked up by TSA as screeners. I would suppose as more of these folks come back from Iraq, the Department of Homeland Security could pick them up pretty quickly,” said Hernandez, who served 22 years in the US Air Force.

Augmenting its in-house explosives expertise could equip TSA to deal with criticisms that it has received from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the past year on its explosives detection systems (EDS) for screening checked baggage at US airports.

Last July, in the report Aviation Security: TSA Has Enhanced Its Explosives Detection Requirements for Checked Baggage, but Additional Screening Actions Are Needed, GAO criticized TSA's management of its EDS program requirements, charging that the agency revised its requirements for the systems in 2010 without fully implementing previous requirements promulgated in 2005. As such, TSA has maintained its EDS machines at various levels of capability.

In the meantime, TSA kicked off a program to bring in advanced EDS machines that can detect a wider range of explosives while introducing more standardization of components. The devices also have not received major upgrades since their initial deployments after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, leaving nearly half of the agency's roughly 2,000 EDS systems in danger of failing by 2013, according to TSA estimates.

“In FY 2012, over 800 explosives detection systems installed in many of our largest airports will exceed their planned 10-year service life. As a result, increased emphasis will be placed on recapitalizing these machines with state-of-the-art EDS units for checked baggage through the requested $273 million in FY 2012,” testified TSA Administrator John Pistole in a budget hearing last March.

Information technology

In October, the TechAmerica Foundation projected that overall federal IT spending would decline slightly in unadjusted dollars from FY 2012 through FY 2017. Measured without inflation, federal IT spending totaled about $81.2 billion in 2012 but will fall to $77.7 billion in 2017 with dips in the Department of Defense budget providing most of that decline.

However, IT spending at DHS (along with the departments of Agriculture, Justice and Treasury) is expected to increase through 2017, according to TechAmerica's estimates. Moreover, cybersecurity spending across all federal agencies likely will become more robust in the next several years.

Analysts who spoke to Homeland Security Today were not at all surprised that DHS IT spending would continue to increase. DHS only now has been bringing online two consolidated data centers to provide centralized IT services to its agencies, they noted, and the department's level of information integration is nowhere near where its administrators would like it to be.

In the first quarter of FY 2012, DHS is expected to release a request for proposals (RFP) for its First Source II consolidated purchasing program. The strategic sourcing program is the follow-on vehicle for IT commodity providers first established in 2007. Companies that land a seat on the First Source II contract will be eligible for task orders under a seven-year deal that could reach total spending of $7 billion.

First Source contracts serve as a companion to contracts under the Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions (EAGLE) consolidated purchasing program for IT services. DHS held competitions for the $22 billion EAGLE II program early in 2011 and anticipates contract awards by the second quarter of FY 2012, Gerritz said.

“DHS will continue to push those two contracts and larger vehicles like them,” Gerritz of Deltek commented. "We predict they will be utilized more often in FY 2012."

As the cybersecurity operations center for civilian federal agencies, DHS also has requirements for cybersecurity support, he added. “With cybersecurity, the first thing we will probably see coming down in 2012 is the development and integration of the Einstein 3 cybersecurity program.”

At the time of the interview, Gerritz was expecting DHS to issue an RFP for a primary contractor to develop the Einstein 3 intrusion detection system for federal networks by the end of the 2011 calendar year. However, a delay into the first quarter of 2012 was a real possibility.

Analysis: An emphasis on cybersecurity

Given that private businesses are under cyberattack and must spend to protect their own assets, Napolitano, as well as her predecessors Chertoff and Ridge, foresee cybersecurity as a burgeoning industry full of opportunities across all parts of the homeland security enterprise.

As cyberattacks against large private organizations continue to grow, those organizations increasingly must spend more on cybersecurity solutions, the three DHS secretaries agreed during the university forum in October. The private sector likely will increase its cybersecurity spending as it strives to take matters into its own hands in the near term, particularly when it comes to companies securing their own systems.

“The model of having the government sit on the Internet and watching everything go back and forth is not going to get a hospitable reception in the United States,” Chertoff commented.

To that end, trusted private sector entities would have to interface with federal, state and local governments on solutions and sensitive information, he added.

Ridge called for a sustained public-private partnership dedicated to cybersecurity, enabling the public and private sectors to draw upon the best of both worlds. As he put it, "Congress and the executive branch should look at regulations that inhibit the ability of the private sector to come in and sit and work closely with the immensely talented people in the public sector that still lack the depth and breadth available in the digital community in the United States.”

While the private sector will account for a great deal of the cybersecurity spending next year, Napolitano called on all stakeholders in the homeland security enterprise to invest more money in sustaining and growing homeland security capabilities. In times of cuts for DHS, others—including state and local governments, nonprofit organizations and American businesses—must adjust their spending strategically to maintain national emergency preparedness and protective mechanisms.

Taking a holistic view of homeland security spending across the enterprise was exactly what was prescribed by the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review two years ago. Now the necessity of doing so has come home.


Homeland Security Today: 2012 Procurement Priorities: Mixing and Matching