Homeland Security misses reporting deadlines

The Homeland Security Department has missed deadlines set by the House Appropriations Committee to assess the cost, scope and timetable for technology-related projects, according to committee aides. The deadlines are part of the legislation that would fund the department in fiscal 2004.

A division of Homeland Security in charge of assessing threats to the nation's infrastructure missed two deadlines last month set by the panel: an Aug. 1 deadline for a report on special authority that the division needs to hire additional intellectual and cybersecurity analysts and an Aug. 30 deadline to report on the current number of analysts the unit employs.

The department also missed an Aug. 15 deadline on security standards for containers that store classified information and materials, and failed to report by Sept. 1 on the cost and scope of protecting intellectual property rights related to pirated or counterfeit products used to fund terrorist groups.

Homeland Security Appropriations ranking member Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn., criticized the agency for failing to turn over the data.

"With its unwillingness or inability to provide detailed budget and policy information, the [department] hinders our ability to accurately assess and fund out nation's homeland security needs," said Sabo.

A Congressional Research Service analyst added that a new agency is difficult for an oversight panel to monitor.

"The committee in its oversight function for a newly emerging agency wants to make sure that it has the best information available to it, as it determines the appropriate levels of funding for each account," the CRS analyst said.

A committee aide said the panel included some of the deadlines in its report on the bill in order to obtain information that the department failed to include in its budget request. It wants the data for a House-Senate conference to negotiate the final legislation.

A committee spokesman said appropriators would like to finish action on the measure this month.

Brian Roehrkasse, a department spokesman, declined to explain why the agency has missed the deadlines or the status of the reports, saying that the timetables are not binding because the bill has not been enacted yet. Roehrkasse also said the department has "already provided massive amounts of information to the Appropriations Committee."

Another aide on the panel said it is not unusual for agencies to miss congressional deadlines, but they do so at their peril. Last year, the Appropriations panel penalized the Coast Guard with a fine for failing to submit its long-term financial plan, the aide added.

The committee also requested a report from the Transportation Security Administration on its plan for installing additional explosive-detection systems at airports. The report was due Sept. 1. A TSA spokesman said it submitted the report to the panel, but calls to the committee to confirm that it was received were not returned.

The committee also has outlined several deadlines in the coming months and into 2004 for reports on a wireless communications system and radiation-detection technology, among other departmental programs.