USA Today
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Obama administration is proposing to scale back some border security programs set up after the 9/11 attacks and ramp up aviation security following the attempted Christmas bombing, in what some conservative lawmakers say is a dangerous priority shift.
Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., the top Republican on the House panel overseeing the Department of Homeland Security’s budget, said the border security funding in President Barack Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2011 is “woefully inadequate” and “as dangerous as it is indefensible.”
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said her department’s $56.3 billion budget for next year, up 2 percent over this year, enhances security “across the board.” Department spokesman Bobby Whithorne said the budget “continues to support smart, effective programs to strengthen border and interior security” while making “significant investments in aviation security.”
If Congress approves Obama’s proposals:
- The Border Patrol, which doubled to 20,000 agents during the Bush administration, would lose 180 agents through attrition. Border staffing would stay the same.
- A “virtual” fence of pole cameras and sensors aimed at stopping illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and terrorists on the U.S.-Mexican border, faces a $225 million cut from $800 million last year. That would delay implementation while a review of the fence, plagued by technical problems, is done.
- Five of the Coast Guard’s 13 elite Maritime Security and Safety Teams, created since 2001 to protect waterfront cities, would be eliminated. Obama is proposing cuts in New York City; San Francisco; Anchorage, Alaska; and King’s Bay, Ga.
- The existing 643 miles of concrete-and-steel border fence would be maintained but no new barriers would be built.
In the wake of the failed attempt to blow up an airplane bound for Detroit on Dec. 25, Obama’s budget for next year calls for $371 million for 500 more body scanners, 275 more canine teams and an unspecified number of new air marshals.
Former Homeland Security department policy chief Stewart Baker said that in paying for more aviation security, the White House “has decided that some of the border defenses are more expendable. ... We’re taking some risks there.”
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