PRESIDENTIAL PANEL RECOMMENDS HOMELAND SECURITY VERSION OF DARPA
Proposed Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) should fund and coordinate most of its cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection R&D externally, based on model similar to that of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), White House advisory panel recommended Mon. President’s Council of Advisers on Science & Technology Policy (PCAST) approved report from its Terrorism Subcommittee that sought to create HS-ARPA entity under umbrella of DHS Undersecy. for Science & Technology (S&T). Unit would be similar to DARPA in that it would “conduct its work principally through contracts and grants to others,” draft report said.
PCAST said it would make technical changes in document before sending it to President Bush, although it wasn’t clear what changes would be. Open meeting -- which was supposed to be accessible to public via conference call -- was held in private for first 10 min. due to an error in published call- in number, panel official claimed. PCAST late last week in Federal Register published emergency announcement of hastily assembled meeting, saying it couldn’t provide otherwise lawfully required 15-day prior notice due to speed at which DHS legislation (HR-5005) was moving through Congress. However, notice was published after House had adjourned and one day before Senate adjourned for its summer recess. Likewise, call-in number -- one that purportedly was published incorrectly -- was same number that enabled public access midway through meeting.
PCAST recommended creation of R&D “coordinating council” to ensure that lines of communications were open between DHS and other relevant federal organizations. That interagency function would be carried out jointly through Office of Homeland Security, Office of Science & Technology Policy and DHS Undersecy. for S&T, it said. That would provide policy link from DHS to entities such as NASA, National Science Foundation and Depts. of Defense, Commerce and State, but without imposing DHS R&D command structure over those departments. PCAST report said: “While duplicative R&D can on occasion be constructive if limited to high-risk, high- payoff areas, it should be undertaken consciously and not because of a lack of coordination… While the Undersecretary’s coordinating role is strongly needed, it cannot be performed in a manner that threatens the work of other federal agencies.”
Similar coordinating council should be considered for state and local operations, reflecting their critical role as spelled out in Administration’s National Strategy for Homeland Security, PCAST said: “A mechanism is required for receiving input from, and relaying information to, pertinent state and local officials regarding needed programs or technologies. State and local users of DHS R&D should also be actively engaged, in pilot programs or otherwise, to discuss needs and other issues.”
Despite its recommendation that most R&D be coordinated through HS-ARPA, the panel said it remained important for new department to carry out internal research, testing, evaluation. It proposed that research be performed by DHS National Lab, which would be encouraged to seek “fundamental breakthroughs that are difficult to realize in industrial organizations operating under the pressures of the marketplace… These activities could likely be performed by focusing the missions of one or more of the existing national labs, rather than establishing a new one.”