Lawmakers seek to cut funding for satellite office
National Applications Office was designed to coordinate military and intelligence satellites for domestic operations.
House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee Chairwoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., joined Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Norman Dicks, D-Wash., in a legislative effort Thursday to shut down a controversial Homeland Security Department office designed to coordinate the use of military and intelligence satellites for law enforcement and security operations inside the United States.
In March, both lawmakers urged Secretary Janet Napolitano not to open the National Applications Office, an initiative by the Bush administration, which wanted to move an Interior Department unit that provides satellite support for domestic activities to Homeland Security and expand its mission.
On Thursday, Harman introduced a bill to close the NAO and a separate measure with Dicks to cut off all funding for the office, which has sparked privacy and civil liberties concerns. Dicks could address the issue when appropriators mark up the fiscal 2010 Homeland Security spending bill.
"Despite objections by the civil liberties community, a series of letters sent by members of Congress, an established record of opposition by the House Homeland Security Committee and the prior fencing of funds, the [Homeland Security Department] has requested funding in the classified annex to its fiscal 2010 budget for the NAO," Harman said in a statement.
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