and local public health providers begin to acquire the necessary hardware and assistance to access this information.

Mission Three: Securing Our Borders

America's borders must be made secure—and they must remain open. To achieve both these goals, the border system of the future must gain a new ability to identify low- and high-risk traffic, speeding low-risk traffic on its way, while focusing the attention of border security personnel on high-risk traffic. Accomplishing this separation in a quick and reliable manner is an enormously difficult task. It will require more sophisticated use of data and close cooperation with private industry and other governments, especially Canada, Mexico, and our other large trading partners.

As it is, nearly a dozen federal agencies are charged with patrolling or inspecting along the border. The State Department issues visas. The Justice Department's Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) inspects them. The Treasury Department's Customs Service checks any bags the visa-holder may bring with him. DoD and the National Guard patrol our skies. The Coast Guard, which reports to the Secretary of Transportation, patrols our seas. The Department of Agriculture regulates imports of food, the Commerce Department monitors imports of manufactured goods, the Food and Drug Administration polices imports of legal drugs, and the Drug Enforcement Administration tries to halt imports of illegal ones. The intelligence agencies and the new Transportation Security Administration have important roles as well.

This complex arrangement has evolved over many years, but thanks to the dedicated professionals who staff it, often produces superb results-including the thwarting of al Qaeda's Millennium plot against American targets in 2000.

All of the 19 September 11th hijackers had entered the United States legally but three had overstayed legal visas. The Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates that approximately 40 percent of persons currently in the United States illegally have overstayed legally obtained visas.

Although border security has been strengthened as a result of the terrorist attacks, the INS must do a better job of targeting illegal traffic while welcoming legitimate travelers. Therefore, the President's Budget includes $380 million to establish a reliable system to track the entry and exit of immigrants, particularly those who might pose a security threat to the United States. The new system will leverage advanced technology and construction funding to ensure timely and secure flow of traffic. The Administration's goal is to complete implementation of this new, comprehensive initiative by the end of 2004.

Additional funds will be spent to make passports and other documents of North American nations more compatible with one another and more easily read by one another's computers-and to develop other identification techniques to halt illegal entrants and speed and smooth the way for lawful travelers and cargoes.

The northern border, in particular, has become an attractive route for potential terrorists. Until very recently, many northern entry points into the United States were not staffed around the clock; entry into the United States was sometimes controlled by no more than orange cones in the middle of the road. Such measures stop only honest people.

Ending this vulnerability is an urgent priority that must build on the long history of cooperative border management between the United States and Canada, partners in the largest trading relationship in the world. In December 2001, the United States and Canada declared a mutual commitment to create a "smart border" that could safeguard against terrorist activity while ensuring the free flow of people and goods. The President's Budget provides funds to implement this agreement.

A car waits at an unattended northern border point of entry, blocked only by orange traffic cones in the middle of the road.

The President's Budget would more than double the number of Border Patrol agents and inspectors across the northern border. It supports deployment of force-multiplying equipment, including remote operated infrared cameras, to monitor isolated areas where illegal entry may have once occurred. The budget also provides resources to integrate once-separate information systems to ensure timely, accurate, and complete enforcement data is available in the field.

Mission Four: Sharing Information and Using Technology to Secure the

Homeland

After September 11th, it became evident that important information about the hijackers' activities was available through a variety of federal, state, and local databases. It also became clear that there is no comprehensive system for sharing information relevant to our security across jurisdictional lines.

The President's Budget proposes $722 million for improvements to information-sharing within the federal government and between the federal government and other jurisdictions.

These improvements are often highly technical-and yet are crucial to the successful protection of our society from terrorist attack. Technology investments will improve the performance of agencies in preparing for, detecting and responding to homeland security threats. So we will:

⚫ ensure that federal agencies with homeland security responsibilities have needed access to threat information throughout the federal government;

⚫ establish a process to provide for appropriately secure communications with state and local officials so they may receive homeland security information in a timely manner;

⚫ ensure that crisis communications for federal, state, and local officials is reliable and secure; and

unify federal government security and critical infrastructure protection initiatives, and make strong security a condition of funding for all federal investments in information-technology systems.

Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the "blind sheikh❞ involved in the 1993 car bombing of the World Trade Center, not only entered the United States legally but was granted permanent resident alien status despite a terrorist past that dated to the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Improved information-sharing could make a repeat of such tragic mistakes unlikely.

Other Initiatives

These four missions lead our homeland security agenda-but they are not the whole of it. We must also finish the job of securing our airways. In 2003, the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will strive to meet the tight deadlines and rigorous aviation security requirements set by Congress. The TSA is responsible for screening passengers and baggage at each U.S. airport with commercial air service. The budget requests $4.8 billion for TSA, a 210 percent increase on aviation security over 2002. It includes funds to:

• complete the hiring of approximately 30,000 new federal airport security workers to check passenger identities and inspect carry-on and checked baggage;

• accelerate the installation of explosive detection technology so that all baggage loaded in aircraft is safe; and

• implement other measures to enhance passenger safety and facilitate air travel.

We also propose a robust expansion in domestic law-enforcement work. The Attorney General has instructed all department bureaus to shift their primary focus from investigating and prosecuting past crimes to identifying threats of future terrorist acts, preventing them from happening, and punishing would-be perpetrators for their plan of terror. The 2003 Budget requests enhancements to the capabilities of the FBI and other law enforcement/intelligence agencies. These enhancements will:

• enable the FBI to add more than 300 agents and other investigative staff to the surveillance of terrorists and collection of information about their activities;

• add more than 15 investigators to the Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Center (FTAT), to identify and close down the sources of money that supports the terrorist cells. FTAT and the Office of Foreign Assets Control work together to seize the terrorists' assets; and

add approximately 150 FBI special agents and investigative staff to the task of protecting our banking, finance, energy, transportation, and other critical systems from disruption by terrorists, including by cyber attack.

We face new kinds of threats from new kinds of enemies. Defeating those threats will be the great challenge and the great achievement of this generation of Americans.

The Homeland Security Budget

To develop the homeland security budget, the Office of Homeland Security and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identified those activities that are focused on combating and protecting against terrorism and occur within the United States and its territories. Such activities include efforts to detect, deter, protect against and, if needed, respond to terrorist attacks.

As a starting point, funding estimates for these activities are based on data that has been reported since 1998 in OMB's Annual Report to Congress on Combating Terrorism, and include combating terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMD), critical infrastructure protection (CIP), and continuity of operations (COOP).

In addition, homeland security includes funding for border security (i.e., Immigration and Naturalization Service's enforcement and detention activities, Customs' enforcement activities, Coast Guard's enforcement activities, the Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Program, and State's visa program) and aviation security.

Since homeland security focuses on activities within the United States, estimates do not include costs associated with fighting terrorism overseas; those costs are captured within the war on terrorism abroad category.

The budget uses the Combating Terrorism Report's definitions for combating terrorism and WMD preparedness, CIP, and COOP. Combating terrorism includes both antiterrorism (defensive measures used to combat terrorism) and counterterrorism (offensive measures used to combat terrorism), and includes the following five categories of activities as they directly relate to such efforts:

⚫ law enforcement and investigative activities;

preparing for and responding to terrorist acts;

⚫ physical security of government facilities and employees;

⚫ physical protection of national populace and national infrastructure; and

research and development activities.

CIP is defined as efforts associated with enhancing the physical and cybersecurity of public and private sector infrastructures, especially cyber systems that are so vital to the nation that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating impact on national security, national economic security, and/or national public health and safety.

COOP refers to the capability of federal agencies to perform essential functions during any emergency or situation that may disrupt normal operations.

As the Office of Homeland Security develops a comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks, it may refine the definition used to establish the boundaries of this category.