Congress weighs D.C. request for security funds

The District of Columbia is requesting funding from Congress for emergency preparedness in the event of a terrorist attack, including cyberterrorism, but lawmakers have yet to finalize the numbers in a spending bill that they will consider when both chambers return in September.

The District submits a budget to Congress, which must approve how the capital city spends even local funds. The House Appropriations Committee passed its D.C. funding bill, H.R. 2765, by voice vote on July 15. The Senate Appropriations Committee two days later delayed final action on its version over language on private-school vouchers.

The House also may become entangled in the vouchers debate when it votes on the measure this fall. House Republican leaders threatened in July to add the language to the legislation.

For fiscal 2004, D.C. officials requested $159 million in federal funding to prepare for a terrorist attack. The money would go toward enhancing cyber and information security, as well as for software to control traffic lights during an evacuation of the area, according to Eugene Boyd, an analyst at the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

The $159 million would include $28 million for municipal agencies considered "critical" to security, $18.5 million for bolstering information security and $8 million to contain cyber terrorism with firewall protections and security architecture, according to CRS.

The District also requested $46 million for its unified communications center, which is designed to coordinate communications among local, state and federal emergency workers during a regional or national crisis.

The House bill would not provide funding for the emergency initiative. While the Senate panel has yet to complete its work on the bill, it also did not address the request in the July markup.

Doxie McCoy, a spokeswoman for D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, said the House and Senate Appropriations committees rarely earmark money for specific projects in the District, but the request is on a list of pending projects that will be addressed during a House-Senate conference on the final bill. McCoy said the request is a "priority" for Norton, and "she will push for [it]" to be included in conference report.

The House Appropriations report on the bill, meanwhile, recommends about $15.8 million from local funds in the District to the chief technology officer, who oversees all technology activities and telecommunications for the city's 68 agencies. With additional local funds, that office's total operating budget would be $27.4 million in fiscal 2004.

Chief of Staff Linda Argo said the office has 140 ongoing projects ranging from a new software system to tracking vehicles during snow removal to implementing a fiber-optic system for the District's telephone and data system.

Argo also said the office designed the District's Internet portal and is currently building a new wireless network.