Homeland Security spent $5 billion on private contracts in first year
Halcitron
Scripps Howard News Service May 20, 2004
Homeland Security spent $5 billion on private contracts in first year
By Thomas Hargrove
- The Department of Homeland Security during its first, hectic year of
operation paid private contractors at least $5 billion to make America safer
from terrorist attack.
The nation's newest and third-largest federal department signed at least 18,505
contracts for an astonishing array of goods and services, ranging from almost
$800 million on airport bomb-detection devices to $14.8 million on hotel rooms.
Many of these contracts were signed during a crisislike atmosphere following
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the private contractors who
filled the orders.
The agency already has spent money in all 50 states and five U.S. territories,
according to a study by Scripps Howard News Service of recently released
federal files. The information from the General Services Administration
provides America's first detailed glimpse into the department's day-to-day
operations. The $5 billion in contracts was about one-eighth of the
department's $38 billion expenditure.
"It's very difficult to understand how Homeland Security is spending money,"
said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a nonpartisan research
organization. "Their publicly released budget information is incoherent. I like
to call it a budgetlike object."
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, while appearing before the 9/11
commission this week, said his department's mission "is about the integration
of people and technology to make us smarter, safer, more sophisticated and
better protected."
Certainly the technology acquisitions by Ridge's staff have been enormous.
The largest category of expenditure by Homeland Security was at least $792
million for chemical-detection and automated alarm systems, according to the
Scripps Howard study. The largest single payment made by Homeland Security
officials last year was a $294 million payment to Boeing Service Co., part of a
multiyear, $2 billion commitment to install and maintain thousands of
explosive-detection systems (EDS) and chemical-trace detectors in 443 airports.
"That contract was let in June of 2002 to install about 6,000 machines. There
had been an original plan (before the Sept. 11 attacks) to have deployments of
systems like these over a six- to nine-year period. We were able to do this in
about 180 days," said Greg Deiter, chief engineer at Boeing's Airport Security
Program in Richardson, Texas.
"We brought a lot of resources to bear. Peak employment in this program was
about 30,000 people. We even employed every truck that was available for rent
on Christmas Day 2002 for equipment deliveries."
Homeland Security's second-largest payment was a $276 million check to Pearson
Government Solutions of Arlington, Va., part of a $700 million contract to hire
and screen 64,000 employees for the new Transportation Security Administration
who now screen baggage and check passengers at major airports.
"There certainly was a lot of pressure to federalize that work force in a very
compressed time period," said Pearson Vice President David Hakensen. "We did
the hiring in about 100 days. TSA said it was the largest hiring effort by the
federal government since World War II."
Homeland Security last year paid at least $256.6 million in 1,609 separate
contracts or amendments to contracts to hire what the GSA described as
"security guards and patrol services" at hundreds of federal and private plants
and installations.
"This was something that happened throughout America. There are rent-a-cops
everywhere now," Pike said.
The sudden shuffling of federal personnel immediately after the 2001 terrorist
attacks also prompted Homeland Security officials to sign nearly 700 contracts
with individual hotels to provide temporary living quarters. The largest single
hotel order was a $480,000 payment to the 160-room Holiday Inn Park Central of
Port Arthur, Texas.
"That was for the Coast Guard. They all came here right after 9/11, about 100
of them or so," said Phyllis Montis, the Holiday Inn's manager. "They were
involved in security and would go out to meet all of the ships before they came
into the port. But they've all gone now. They've all rented apartments around
here."
The federal department also purchased $13 million worth of small-caliber
ammunition, much of it coming from the Federal Cartridge Co. of Anoka, Minn.
"We are the largest supplier of small-caliber ammunition to the federal
government, and the volume that we manufacture is going up dramatically," said
manufacturer spokesman Bryce Hallowell.
Four years ago, Federal Cartridge produced 350 million rounds of ammunition.
This year it expects to manufacture 1.2 billion rounds and expects to produce
1.5 billion next year. But the needs of Homeland Security's armed agents are
responsible for only a fraction of this boom in bullet production, Hallowell
said.
"It's called the 'Jessica Lynch effect.' Troops who were once not considered to
be front-line now need to be qualified riflemen," he said. "The Army has gone
through a change in doctrine so that every soldier must qualify (on the rifle
and pistol range) for small-caliber arms regularly. ..."
Even U.S. territories like Puerto Rico and Guam have become sites of Homeland
Security contract work.
However, more than half of the money is being expended in the area around the
nation's capital, with $1.3 billion spent in Virginia, $1.1 billion in the
District of Columbia and $219.8 million in Maryland.
But other states, especially those along the Mexican border or areas with
sensitive federal facilities, also are receiving considerable amounts of
Homeland Security expenditures, led by Texas at $866.5 million, California at
$277.6 million and Washington state at $104.8 million.
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© Copyright 2004, Scripps Howard News Service
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caveat lector
Halcitron misc.survivalism alt.survival
"Failing to prepare.... Is preparing to fail."
NRA Member since 2002
The Law of the Land, is the weapon in your hand.
Smith & Wesson starts where the Bill of Rights stop.
The Independent
Halcitron wrote:
>
> Scripps Howard News Service May 20, 2004
>
> Homeland Security spent $5 billion on private contracts in first year
>
<Snipped>
Why would you think that the third largest federal agency with tons of
unaccountable cash wouldn't become another pork barrel agency to funnel
federal dollars to local legislative districts.
By the way we are no safer today than we were on September 10, 2001.
Al-Qaida agents who are here....
Who have tons of money....
Who are highly educated ......
Who are highly motivated .....
Who hate our very guts .....
Are going to slit, shoot and blow the hell out of us and there is
nothing we are going to do about it. (I said going to do, not can do).
We are deathly afraid of offending some Islamic Woman in a Burka that is
covering a C-4 Vest impregnated with nails, screws and ball bearings,
as she walks into Disneyland on the forth of July.
The Independent
The Independent
The Independent
Strabo wrote:
>
>
> <snipped>
> To date, the US government continues to kill far more innocent
> people in America each year than do terrorists.
>
Can you cite your figures for the above statement????
Thought not.
In any case if the U.S. Government is killing innocent people in america
I would like to add a few names to their list.
The Independent