By Ed Somers and Ron Thaniel
September 27, 2004

The House and Senate have both approved their FY 2005 funding bills for the Department of Homeland Security. Included in the House bill (H.Rept. 108-541) and Senate bill (S.Rept. 108-280) is funding for first responder grants, fire grants, port security grants, rail and transit security grants, aviation passenger and baggage screening with funds for the procurement and installation of explosive detection systems.

Both the House and Senate have included significant funding for high-threat areas, with the House providing $1 billion and the Senate providing $1.3 billion (see chart for earmarks within these totals.) Both of these numbers are below the $1.45 billion requested by the Administration. However, the House and Senate provided significantly more for state block grant and firefighter programs.

Reimbursement Change Possible

In a major policy change, the House bill includes language that would exempt much of the funding from the federal Cash Management Act. This exemption would eliminate the requirement that funding be spent by cities within three days of receipt, or that cities fund expenses out of local budgets and then seek reimbursement. The current requirement was found to be a major problem in getting federal homeland security funds spent, and the special Department of Homeland Security task force on funding issues that Conference President Akron Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic helped lead called for a similar change. The exemption is not in the Senate bill, so the Conference is actively lobbying for inclusion in the final legislation.

Overtime

Both bills provide for some overtime coverage under the High-Threat Urban Areas and Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention programs. However, the Senate bill would cap this expense at 10 percent of the overall appropriation, while the House bill does not include a cap.

Transportation Security

The House and Senate bills continue efforts to enhance security through increased funding for all modes of transportation, including aviation, maritime, rails, transit and highway. Worth mentioning, with the horrors of the Madrid commuter rail bombings still fresh and homeland security intelligence transmitting transit and rail modes as possible terrorist targets, both bills have placed increased focus on non-aviation transportation modes.

Reorganized under the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness, the Senate bill would provide $150 million for rail and transit security grants and $150 million for port security grants. The House-passed bill provides $111 million for rail and transit and $125 million for port security. Recognizing the enormous financial costs of safeguarding America's skies, aviation security funding is increased in the House and Senate bills; however, both measures convey concern over deficiencies in baggage and passenger screening.

In particular, the Senate bill communicates an awareness of the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) efforts to screen passengers and their carry-on baggage by means of explosive detection systems, explosive trace detection, and canine units have deficiencies that warrant concern. As a result, the Senate bill includes language that no later than July 1, 2005, a detailed report shall be provided to the Committee on TSA's current pilot program to screen passengers and carry-on baggage for explosives, including implementation costs and schedules for purchase, installation, and maintenance of new technologies.

Following is a comparison of some of the key programs under the bills, which will now head to a conference committee. The Conference of Mayors is actively working to ensure that the final bill contains maximum funding for key first responder programs: