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Federal Budget Boosts Surveillance Spending
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President Bush's proposed $2.57 trillion federal budget for fiscal
year 2006 greatly increases the amount of money spent on surveillance
technology and manpower while cutting about 150 programs, many from
the departments of health, education, farming, housing and the
environment.

The Department of Homeland Security would receive $41.1 billion, an
almost 7% increase in its budget.  Homeland Security wants $847
million to create the Office of Screening Coordination and Operations,
which would oversee vast databases of digital fingerprints and
photographs, eye scans and personal information from millions of
Americans and foreigners.  This office would be responsible for United
States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT)
(this gets about $390 million of the $847 million), Secure Flight and
Crew Vetting ($94 million), Free and Secure Trade ($7 million),
NEXUS/Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection ($14
million), Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) ($244
million), Registered Traveler ($22 million), Hazardous Materials
Trucker Background Checks ($44 million), and Alien Flight School
Checks ($10 million).  The last $20 million of the $847 million budget
would go to the Transportation Security Administrations's
"Credentialing Start-up."

According to the budget, "the mission of the proposed Office of
Screening Coordination and Operations (SCO) is to enhance the
interdiction of terrorists and the instruments of terrorism by
streamlining terrorist-related screening by comprehensive coordination
of procedures that detect, identify, track, and interdict people,
cargo and conveyances, and other entities and objects that pose a
threat to homeland security."  The budget goes on to say that "the SCO
would produce processes that will be effected in a manner that
safeguards legal rights, including freedoms, civil liberties, and
information privacy guaranteed by Federal law."  It is unclear,
however, what steps the office intends to take to protect these
rights.

Homeland Security also wants $73.3 million for cybersecurity; $20
million for the Border Patrol, a part of Customs and Border
Protection, for sensor, communication and video surveillance
capabilities along borders; $51.1 million for America's Shield
Initiative, which enhances electronic surveillance capabilities along
U.S. borders; and $3 million for "a system that captures biometric and
biographical information with a '10 Print' fingerprint reader, and
computer based facial imagery of foreigners entering the U.S."  This
system "is now operational at all Border Patrol stations, every air
and seaport of entry, and the 50 busiest land ports of entry."

Under the proposed budget, the FBI will receive $555 million - an
increase of 11% from 2005 and 76% from 2001.  Of that, the FBI will
spend $9.9 million and have 80 positions that enhance its surveillance
capabilities.  This significant increase in FBI funding comes just a
week after a report by an Inspector General found that the agency's
poor planning and bad management were the main reasons that the FBI
will have to abandon a $170 million computer upgrade.  The FBI
acknowledged in January that the software for the system is already
outdated.

The National Science Foundation would receive $5.6 billion, which
includes a 2.4 percent increase in research funding, but a decrease in
its education budget.  The budget specifically provides $94 million in
funding for research related to cybersecurity; $803 million for
projects in networking and information technology, including advanced
computing and information-management technologies; and $344 million
for nanotechnology research.

Last month, foundation director Arden Bement told the National
Journal's technology daily that the foundation research priorities
follow those that are set out by the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy and Office of Management and Budget.  "You'll find
activities throughout our whole program reflecting those priorities,"
he said to the National Journal.  Those priorities included homeland
security research and development, nanotechnology, and networking and
information technology research and development.

This continues a dramatic shifting in the research priorities of the
traditional science organizations, such as the National Science
Foundation, toward new surveillance technologies.  In Last October,
EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg joined other recipients of the
Norbert Wiener Award for Professional and Social Responsibility in an
open letter warning about this shift in research priorities.

While expressing support for new technologies that will identify
dangerous substances, the letter said that left unchecked, the
consequence of this shift in research priorities "could be the
adoption of systems of mass surveillance unrelated to any terrorist
threats.  This will give the government sweeping new capability to
monitor private life and thus diminish the freedom and liberty of
Americans."  The letter stressed that privacy and civil liberty
concerns must be addressed in the early phases of research and made a
priority throughout implementation.  The letter was accompanied by a
brief survey of technology programs currently funded by the federal
government, including US-VISIT, the Multi-State Anti-Terrorism
Information Exchange  (MATRIX) and other data mining and mass
surveillance initiatives.

For more information on government surveillance funding, visit EPIC's
Federal Spending on Surveillance Page:

      http://www.epic.org/privacy/budget/fy2006

(snip)

For more information about aviation security initiatives, visit EPIC's
Passenger Profiling Page:

      http://www.epic.org/privacy/airtravel/profiling

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Source: E P I C  A l e r t  Volume 12.03 February 10, 2005

http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_12.03.html


Cheers, Steve..

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