So they can create plans to protect DHS $$$ from other expenditure
And siphon ever more $$$ to an already over funded system that's had to create ways to spend its ever increasing budget.
Yet social services and security keep being placed on the chopping block.
Seems like a pattern to me.
The newest: 46.3 billion border surge plan
http://seattletimes.com/avantgo/2021356728.html
But thanks in part to lobbying by security contractors, the Senate immigration bill that goes to the Republican-led House this week includes a computerized “biometric” exit system that could cost more than $7 billion.
The plan is part of the bill’s $46?billion “border surge” of security measures, a 10-year spending gusher that would produce a financial bonanza for some of America’s largest aerospace, technology and security companies, as well as some border states.
~~~
If the law is enacted, the Treasury Department would set aside $46.3 billion in a special trust-fund account to protect it from lawmakers who might seek to draw on or reduce the money in future budget battles.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, considers Homeland Security acquisitions programs to be at “high risk” for abuse. A GAO report in February concluded that major acquisitions “continue to cost more than expected, take longer to deploy than planned, or deliver less capability than promised.”
~~~
“It’s an irrational buildup,” said Chris Rickerd, policy counsel on immigration at the American Civil Liberties Union. “It doesn’t correspond to security needs or any reasonable approach to securing the border.”
Some previous related posts:
TSA and Border Patrol both received funding increases
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=628201
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1648105&mesg_id=1654095
As I noted then:
I'd love to see an accounting of the increased funding that has gone to all these 'security" entities as a category, some newly created such as Dept of Homeland Security and some like the Border Patrol that have been operating beyond their mission to justify the increased budget. It would also need to include areas such as wire tapping (how much to pay for the rooms created for server traffic, such as at AT&T and the salaries for those monitoring all that) and the bureaucracies put in place in the last decade.
How much better that funding would be spent on social needs and investment in areas such as infrastructure (especially updating the grid and investing in sustainable energy technology. Instead, we've had amounts that are hard to even identify or track diverted for years now.
And some examples of how this is getting used:
"Researcher detained at U.S. border, questioned about Wikileaks"
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8859153
Kafkaesque ordeal: Innocent Canadian arrested at U.S. Border
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002329405
Border Patrol Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Claiming Illegal Stops Based on Race
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/1002711790
TSA and VIPR:
Here's some info on VIPR and on additional expansion of DHS, TSA and Border Patrol funding and roles:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=816389
Including inter city buses:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=816634
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=818308
