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Homeland Secruity S&T Budget -- focus on radiation detection
I think the following may be of interest.
-----------------
FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science
Policy News
Number 88: June 30, 2004
Senate Homeland Security Bill Would Boost S&T Spending
The Senate Appropriations Committee has sent the FY
2005 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations
bill to the floor. Under this bill, S. 2537, funding
for the department's science and technology programs
would increase by 17.0% or $147.8 million over the
current budget to $1,016.7 million.
The House of Representatives has passed its own FY
2005 funding bill. H.R. 4567 would provide a 22.4% or
$194.9 million increase over this year for "Research,
Development, Acquisition and Operations" for a total
recommended budget of $1,063.7 million. The Bush
Administration requested $988.0 million. Further
information on the House bill can be found at
http://www.aip.org/fyi/2004/079.html
The following selections pertaining to S&T programs of
interest to the physics community were taken from
Senate Appropriations Committee report 108-280.
Readers wishing to view the committee's funding and
policy recommendations regarding all 17 S&T programs
may access the entire report at
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app05.html
NUCLEAR AND RADIOLOGICAL COUNTERMEASURES: "The
Committee provides $127,810,000 to rapidly develop and
transition enhanced capability to deployed detectors
and systems and to rapidly incorporate recent advances
in prototype technologies into the near commercial
assistance of radiological and nuclear detectors and
systems for use in operational environments.[The House
provided $122.6 million, as well as $6.7 million in
the Management and Administration account.]
"Existing technologies being deployed by agencies at
ports-of-entry, including the United States Coast
Guard and the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection,
provide an effective nuclear countermeasure system.
However, continued focused development can
considerably extend these capabilities in order to
develop technologies for application to specific
locations, including those in the intermodal
transportation system, in the maritime domain, at
border ports-of-entry, and in the aviation industry.
The Committee expects a significant expansion of the
Countermeasures Test Bed being conducted with the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey in testing
technologies to detect radiation/nuclear threats to
include railway, general aviation facility monitoring,
expanded roadways coverage, and an additional seaport.
"The Committee is aware of technology proposals
developed with national laboratories to facilitate the
inspection of containerized cargo for fissile
materials as a part of the normal off-loading process
at the Nation's seaports. The Committee understands
this process would not increase normal cargo
off-loading process time and would provide a detection
capability not currently in place. The Committee
encourages the Department to investigate the
feasibility of such technology as a part of its
efforts to secure our Nation's ports."
RAPID PROTOTYPING: "The Committee recommends
$75,120,000 for research, development, testing,
evaluation and timely transition of homeland security
capabilities to Federal, State, and local operational
end-users. [The House bill provided $76.0 million.]
The Committee expects the rapid prototyping program to
continue to provide a mechanism for accelerated
development of technologies relevant to homeland
security by accelerating the time to develop and
commercialize relevant technologies in order to
provide the operational end-user the ability to
prevent terrorist attacks, reduce the Nation's
vulnerability, and minimize the damage and assistance
in recovery if attacks occur."
STANDARDS: "The Committee provides $39,239,000 for
development of consistent and verifiable standards in
terms of basic functionality, task appropriateness and
adequacy, interoperability, efficiency, and its
sustainability to improve the quality and usefulness
of homeland security systems and technologies by
actively engaging the Federal, State, and local first
responder. [The House bill provided $39.7 million.]
"The Committee expects standards development and
implementation projects for biological, chemical, high
explosives, nuclear and radiological, terrorist
intent, cyber security, and critical infrastructure
protection to develop guidelines as a collaborative
effort among vulnerability analysts, tool developers,
users, and standards experts."
UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS/HOMELAND SECURITY FELLOWSHIP
PROGRAMS: "The Committee provides $69,048,000, an
increase of $39,048,000 from the budget request, to
fund existing and future Homeland Security Centers of
excellence and to continue the university fellows
program. The Committee encourages the Department to
consider all colleges and universities that meet the
requirements of 6 U.S.C. 188 in the selection of
university-based centers, including historically black
colleges and universities, tribal colleges,
Hispanic-serving institutions, Native Hawaiian-serving
institutions, and Alaskan Native-serving
institutions." (The House bill provided $70.0
million.)
###############
Richard M. Jones
Media and Government Relations Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi@aip.org http://www.aip.org/gov
(301) 209-3094
##END##########
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Edward R. Murrow
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail: crispy_bird@yahoo.com
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