Bush budget boosts spending for Customs programs
President Bush released his $2.4 trillion budget for fiscal year 2005. The request to Congress includes $40.2 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, up 10 percent and about $10 billion from the amount appropriated by Congress for the current fiscal year, and $58.7 billion for the Department of Transportation.
Overall, the administration is seeking a 9.7 percent increase above last year’s budget for homeland security activities across several agencies.
The administration proposes spending an additional $411 million for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Coast Guard. The sea service budget calls for an 8 percent increase, including money to continue a massive modernization program and more than $100 million extra to implement the Maritime Transportation Security Act, which requires the Coast Guard to make sure ships, waterfront facilities and ports have antiterrorist security plans in place.
The president seeks additional funding for many programs that affect international trade. The request for Customs’ budget is $6.2 billion, up $5.9 billion in 2004. The budget matches the $101 million authorized for the Container Security Initiative, a program to screen shipping boxes overseas, for ongoing 2004 activities, and adds another $25 million to expand the program to other ports around the world. The Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism — which encourages importers and their supply chain partners to implement strong internal security measures to make sure containers are not tampered with — receives an extra $15.2 million in the 2005 budget request, up from $23 million the agency currently devotes to the program. Customs’ National Targeting Center and Automated Targeting System, responsible for ranking cargo and sifting out high-risk shipments, gets a $20.6 million boost in the budget. The budget also calls for $50 million to be spent on radiation detection monitors to screen passengers and cargo entering the United States.
The International Trade Data System, a government-wide system under development for sharing trade and transportation data among agencies, would receive an additional $5 million above the $11 million in current funding.
If the budget is approved, Customs would receive $450 million to modernize its automated data collection and trade industry communication systems, collectively referred to as the Automated Customs Environment, which represents an 11-percent increase from the $439 million funding level in 2004.
The Transportation Security Administration will receive an additional $890 million above its current $5.3 billion allocation, primarily to improve screening of passengers for air travel. Overall aviation security spending would increase 20 percent, including $85 million to fund research and deployment of air cargo screening technology and $61 million to develop aircraft systems that counter the threat of shoulder-fired missiles.
The administration’s bioterrorism program includes $10 million for the Agriculture Department to improve food and animal surveillance programs conducted by the Food Safety and Inspection Services and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which actually operates out of Customs but receives program support from USDA.
The Transportation Department’s budget represents more than a $4 billion increase from the previous request. The budget request increases funding for the six-year transportation reauthorization plan known as the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003 (SAFETEA) — the follow-on the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) — to $256 billion, up almost $9 billion over the administration’s original proposal last May. The DOT said the difference did not reflect a change in the administration’s position, but rather an increase in spending already ushered in by Congress in the current appropriation. The amount is almost $100 billion less than House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, is seeking.
The DOT requests $14 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration, the first yearly appropriation of the $60 billion four-year aviation
reauthorization plan that passed last year.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it needs $4.2 billion for dredging waterways and other activities.