Budget Supplemental Strengthens
Interior's Homeland Security Initiatives

The supplemental budget for 2002, which President Bush signed into law on January 10, 2002, includes $89.5 million for the U.S. Department of the Interior to help strengthen its role in homeland security and to protect important national treasures, including the Washington Monument and Statue of Liberty.

"We have been operating at a high level of security preparedness since Sept. 11," Secretary Norton said in announcing the supplemental funding, "and this budget assistance will enable us to make long-term security improvements to parks, monuments, dams, power plants, and other Interior facilities."

The Department has maintained its continuity of operations center in a state of readiness, assigned personnel on a revolving basis to the national security site, and enhanced the security of Interior facilities by reassigning law enforcement officers on a temporary duty basis to its most critical sites.

The Supplemental, PL 107-117, provides $57 million for the National Park Service, including the following:

• $25.3 million for the U.S. Park Police who are providing additional patrols in Washington, D.C., and New York, upgrades to security equipment, and a third recruit class in 2002 to maintain adequate force levels;

• $6.1 million for increased guard services and protection for important national assets such as the Liberty Bell, Mount Rushmore, and the U.S.S. Arizona and $4 million to reimburse the National Park Service;

• $5.1 million for security equipment that is being installed at highly visible national monuments, including the Statue of Liberty in New York, the National Mall in Washington, the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and other key sites in the National Park System; and

• $16.5 million for repairs to Federal Hall, a national historic landmark damaged by the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings.

Interior's Bureau of Reclamation, which provides critical water and power to western states, will receive $30.3 million for security at dams and power plants managed by the bureau. The money will

• fund 24 hour-a-day, 7 day-a-week security that is in place at key Reclamation facilities, including Hoover, Grand Coulee, Glen Canyon and Shasta Dams;

• accelerate security reviews and vulnerability assessments to ensure security is adequate for key water and hydropower facilities in light of new credible threats; and

• fund installation of security equipment, including access control, enhanced communications and lighting, remote surveillance systems, exterior alarmed doors and locks, and alarm systems.

The FY 2002 Supplemental also provides $2.2 million for increased security at the Department of the Interior's headquarters complex in Washington, D.C., including $1.7 million for additional guards and $515,000 to upgrade security and communications systems.

The Department is funding other high priority 2002 counter-terrorism needs within existing budgets. In fiscal year 2001, the National Park Service received an allocation of $3.1 million in emergency funds to cover overtime, equipment, and related costs for immediate response and recovery actions in New York City and Washington, D.C., and to stabilize Federal Hall.

In response to the Sept. 11, the Department provided manpower and assistance in the New York City rescue and recovery efforts; improved security at Hoover, Shasta, Grand Coulee, and Glen Canyon Dams; increased security at national monuments, such as the Statue of Liberty, Mt. Rushmore, Jefferson Expansion Memorial, National Mall monuments.

Using its own funds, the Department also upgraded security at its Headquarters site to meet the higher threat level; helped Boston, New York, and other airports increase their security and preparedness; provided law enforcement officers to the Federal Aviation Administration to serve in their Federal Air Marshall program, thereby increasing protection to the traveling public; and assisted security and law enforcement agencies with mapping and geospatial data to aid their efforts.

Additionally, Interior has been working with U.S. Customs at border ports of entry and the U.S. Border Patrol to enhance patrols and surveillance along stretches of the nation's borders with Mexico and Canada that pass through national parks, refuges, and recreation areas.

Interior is restructuring its law enforcement coordination to provide more effective policy coordination and information flows between the Department and the enforcement and security staffs in the bureaus, including emergency planning, and facilities and personnel security functions. The restructuring provides a central point of contact and coordination for dealing with other federal, state, and local law enforcement and security agencies, including daily coordination with the Office of Homeland Security. The Department also operates a 24 hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week Watch Office at the Main Interior Building complex, a command center for Interior's law enforcement activities.

Interior officials who are members of the Homeland Security Task Force that was formed by the Office of Homeland Security include Reclamation Commissioner John Keys III, who sits on the facilities committee; USGS Director Charles Groat, a member of the science committee; and Tom Weimer, the assistant deputy secretary for Water and Science, who represents the Office of the Secretary on the Task Force.

In response to the anthrax contamination threat, the Department took a number of steps to protect its employees, especially those who handle mail. It tested all of its major mail handling facilities in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, issued personal protective equipment and safe mail handling procedures, and provided antibiotics to these employees as a further precaution. The tests found no anthrax contamination at any of the sites.

The guidelines and protocols were also used to advise all employees on how to identify suspicious letters and parcels and what actions to take if they encounter either a suspicious piece of mail or an unknown substance in the mail. The Secretary also led a special town hall meeting with employees on the anthrax situation.

Interior, which manages 451 million acres of the nation's public lands (about one-sixth of the land in the United States) and more than 2,500 operating sites, has about 5,000 law enforcement officers, making its contingent the third largest law enforcement force in the Federal Government, after the Departments of Justice and Treasury.

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